Fast-rising Nigerian-American model, Adesuwa Aighewi, features on the November 2019 issue of The Porter Magazine. She speaks about her first encounters in America as a Nigerian immigrant shortly after losing her brother and how difficult it had been for her highly qualified parents to find employment.
She spoke about the trauma of losing her brother at age 13 adding that they had planned to be doctors. She said; “People thought we were twins. I had zero interest in medicine because we were like, ‘We’re gonna save the world together’ and we used to compete and everything, and then all my drive was gone.”
Adesuwa has walked the runway for high-end brands like Chanel and Fendi. She says that she has had to be patient and stay true to herself not altering her body or undergoing plastic surgeries to fit into the mainstream spectrum of beauty.
She said, “Someone said to me one time – ‘they are waiting for your breasts; you need to have something,’ and I was like, Bro, my mom doesn’t have tits, no one has tits on my mom or my dad’s side. Does she think she was expected to get implants? A lot of creepy things happen in fashion and, yeah, I figured if I tattooed my chest, it would just end the conversation entirely.”
On migrating to the US, Adesuwa shared; “My dad has a really thick accent and my mom does as well. They are both Ivy League-educated and they couldn’t even get jobs. Can you imagine?”
Read full article here.
See photos from the shoot below;
By: The Arubayi Keme