Anok Yai On The Need To Level The Playing Field In The Modelling Industry

A few weeks ago, the world received another historic moment in the modelling industry, this time from a 19-year old from Egyptian model of Sudanese descent. Anok Yai became the second black woman to open for Prada after Naomi Campbell about 20-years ago. Given the chance to exhibit to the rest of the world her God-given talent in full melanin spirit and she did live up to the expectation placed on her shoulders.

Anok is gradually climbing the ladder in the modelling industry, but this didn’t come on a silver platter for her as she had to first let go of the love for playing basketball and volleyball as a teen. The journey to stardom began when she was photographed by The Sunk at Yardfest who assured her the photo will go viral the next and true to her words.

See the photos that led Anok into stardom:

Attentions were switched to her the following day, calls started coming in from agencies but she chose Next Models. Speaking with vogue after the Prada show, she tells how she looked up to Naomi Campbell and Grace Jones and other models, however, her only fear is the fact that not many models of colours are spotted or afforded the opportunity to shine in the industry.

“But I hope the models working now can set the tone for how people see us, and especially how little girls see us. Growing up, I looked up to Naomi Campbell and Grace Jones but I needed more than just two people. Everywhere I looked, I saw people praising lighter skin and mocking people with dark skin. Now that I have this platform I can hopefully be the person I wanted to look up to. The industry is changing. It’s really slow, but it is changing.” she said.

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