Do you really know ADWOA ABOAH?
She is the one model that really stood out from the rest. Shaved head, tattoos, very light brows, all those freckles, a “I don’t give a shit” way of presenting her way of dressing up, Adwoa Aboah is so different and distinct that it’s like she’s a leading cartoon character and no offense, but the rest of the models are like the random crowd.
Aboah first got scouted at a school fashion show when she was 16. “I did a school fashion show and I got scouted there but I wasn’t very interested in modelling at that point. But I’ve known Sarah Doukas and Storm [Model Management] for a long time, so when I got to about 17 I decided to go in and see her. I used to get scouted outside of Topshop and stuff, and I was brought up in the fashion industry and did a few shoots when I was young which was always fun to get dressed up.”
But her becoming a model and what really built her current character, was a lot of heavy stuff. As a teenager, Aboah was uncomfortable in her own skin, and she developed severe anxiety and depression. “I was completely consumed by fear,” she says. She turned to drugs, specifically ketamine, to cope. This followed her into adulthood, and in 2015, just as her modeling career was taking off, she fell into a four-day coma after a failed suicide attempt. But once she finally entered treatment, she discovered the power of therapy. She said “Having a frank conversation about what’s going on in your life helps you stop feeling alone.” She went on to co-found Gurls Talk, an organization that aims to create spaces for women to come together, both online and in person, to discuss mental health, body image and sexuality.
For Aboah, activism is more than a trend. “Before I even decided that I wanted to model, I decided that I would take on the responsibility of activism” she says. Adwoa’s arms are decorated with delicate tattoos that symbolises her sense of female solidarity. Like the tiny letters that spell ‘Gurl’ behind her right palm and ‘Power’ on her left. All these strong emotions and decisions are what built her to be her. I think if you don’t experience or feel, you can’t really develop or have certain decisions. Ultimately, you have to feel to express, and she herself is a unique expression.
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