These New Faces are On Their Way to a Breakthrough
Nonso
Who:
Nonso; 175 cm / 5’9″; Nigerian from Lagos, Nigeria; born May 23rd.
Where:
90s Model Management (Lekki – mother agency), Women Management (New York), URBN Models (Milan), Trend Model Management (Barcelona)
— An issue or cause you are passionate about:
To end police brutality and The Girl Child movement. I wanna start an organization that caters and looks out for the girl child particularly… against societal stigma, rape and abuse.
— What are three interesting facts about you?
1. I’m a pencil artist.
2. I’m a writer.
3. I like to think I’m fun.
— The most interesting thing about your family?
We are large! And spread out across the world, I literally have relatives from everywhere. I have two siblings, a sister and a brother, both older than I am. My mom is a single parent and has raised three kids perfectly all on her own.
Biniyam
Who:
Biniyam “Ben” Hailu; 188 cm / 6’2″; Ethiopian from Hawassa, Ethiopia; born September 11th.
Where:
United for Models (Warsaw – mother agency), Fashion Model Management (Milan)
— Who is your favorite entertainer?
Bob Marley. I like him because he always talked and sang about love and unity. He told us money isn’t an important thing in this world, that the important things are family. He was also against racism. I wish he was still alive!
— What are three interesting facts about you?
1. I love to play bass guitar. I started playing when I was 7 years old. My dad’s Jamaican, in Jamaica it’s weird to not play a musical instrument.
2. I love playing basketball.
3. I like to cook thanks to my mom, she taught me a lot. I live alone now and it’s really helpful I don’t have a problem with cooking.
— Who is someone you admire and why?
I’ve always admired my mom. She’s the strongest person I l know in this world. She was taking care of me without anyone’s help. My dad left me when I was 10, so she’s always there when I need her most. I can’t think of a word to explain it so I would just say that I am living for her and I want to give her the best things in this world.
Omotayo
Who:
Omotayo Oke; 179 cm / 5’10.5″; Nigerian from Lagos, Nigeria; born July 18th.
Where:
Mahogany Model Africa (mother agency), Select Model Management Paris, Select Model Management Milano
— One thing people may be surprised to find out about you:
When I was born, my parents were expecting a male child but I came out as a girl. Growing up, they made me assume all male child responsibilities in the house and assigned all the tough chores to me. I liked it because it made me strong as a teenager and my siblings looked up to me.
— Who is your favorite entertainer?
WURLD, a Nigerian music artist. I love his genre, his voice, and his dope personality.
— Your most embarrassing moment:
During high school, I was too skinny for my age and it made me really insecure. Girls in my class were curvy, I thought something was wrong with me. So an idea struck my mind — I went into mom’s closet and took her shoulder pads, stuffed them into my tube bra, and went to school. Everyone was looking at me differently, especially the boys, so I figured the shoulder pads were working. My confidence level went up, I was feeling fly up until noon when my shoulder pads slipped from my chest when I was wiping the whiteboard for the next class. I was not aware until a boy told me “Tayo, your shoulders pads are all over the place.” Oh Gosh!
David
Who:
David van der Knaap; 186 cm / 6’1″; Dutch/Nigerian from Bleiswijk, The Netherlands; born May 5th.
Where:
The Force Models (Rotterdam – mother agency), Milk Management (London), Trend Model Management (Barcelona)
— Who is someone you admire and why?
I don’t have a specific person I can think of that I admire right now, but I do have great respect for people who came out of a poor neighborhood and made themselves successful. I have even more respect for the ones that come back to make their hometown a better place. It creates more opportunities for the people back home to also make something out of their lives.
— What are three interesting facts about you?
1. During my childhood, I used to get bullied because I looked different. My skin color and hair type were things that the local kids weren’t used to. They used to make fun of me from four till the age of 16. I feel like that really made me aware of my features. I only started embracing them at the age of eighteen. Until this day, fully accepting myself is a challenge and I’m sure that many models share this exact thought.
2. I play guitar. I started by studying classical music and after that I decided to broaden my skills and started focusing on different genres like rock, jazz and R&B.
3. I love traveling alone. The peace of mind and privacy when you travel alone is amazing. When traveling alone, you can meet new people at your destination and see things and places normal tourists often wouldn’t see.
— One thing people may be surprised to find out about you:
Many people tend to be surprised when I say I like being alone. After a long day of spending time with friends or family, I enjoy being alone listening to music or just laying down and think about anything really. I enjoy my nine hours of sleep just as much as a good party.
Trinity
Who:
Trinity; 178 cm / 5’10”; American from New York City, USA; born May 9th.
Where:
Ei Model Management (NY – mother agency)
— Something you are self-conscious about?
Honestly, I’m really self-conscious about my teeth. They’ve always kind of been an insecurity of mine which is one of the reasons why I sort of have an everlasting RBF. But, it’s odd because even though I’ve always struggled to like my teeth, I don’t think that it takes away from my beauty at all. In fact, I think that it makes me look more unique. It’s also made me challenge my views on beauty and question why exactly I consider my smile to be imperfect and why not having perfectly aligned teeth is so important to not only myself but others as well. I think my overbite is pretty cute.
— An issue or cause you are passionate about?
A cause that I care about would be, without a doubt, the Black Lives Matter Movement. BLM is so important to me as a black woman. It’s so incredibly exhausting living in a world that was not only, not made for you, but is also actively working against you. I hate the fact that it’s so normalized that black people are looked at as targets- not even human beings and we’ve just been made to accept that reality, leave our homes every day and just hope that we don’t become another hashtag. I’m tired of it and it needs to change immediately. I’m an active member of my local Black Lives Matter group and try my best to do my part especially during the pandemic and when I physically cannot show up, I give what money I can to other black organizations and black people in need, especially trans black women, they deserve the world.
— How and when did you become a model?
I became a model 2 years ago. I was a sophomore in high school at the time. I remember just being so determined to become a model, I spent the entire summer before that school year taking digitals in my room and emailing them to every single legit modeling agency I could find. Most of them never responded and some of them basically told me that they didn’t like my look but I ended up sending my pictures to EI and I got invited to their open call where I got scouted.
Kieron
Who:
Kieron Harper; 184 cm / 6’0.5″; Canadian/British from Halifax, Canada; born June 19th.
Where:
AMTI: Toronto (mother agency), Bon Image Corp. (Tokyo), Model Directors Management (Seoul)
— One thing people may be surprised to find out about you:
I was training to be a professional ballet dancer for my whole life until the age of 17. It’s given me a lot of skills that I still use today and in modeling. I love contributing and being a part of a larger product / body of work. Both dance and modeling share this. Sometimes I can still hear my teacher’s voice echoing in my head about posture and placement when I’m behind the camera, haha.
— Among your friends and family, what are you famous for?
In my family, I’m kind of known for not being around that much since I’ve been traveling and living away from home for long periods of time since age 12. I really love traveling on my own though.
— How and when did you become a model?
I always had an interest in the fashion / modelling industry, so I used to add scouting hashtags on my Instagram posts from when I was 15. I had been scouted in public a few times as well. Around a year later, my mother agency direct messaged me and asked if I was signed yet, and after meeting with them I felt most comfortable signing with their team.
