Faith Labelle

“Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision, and change,” says a quote. And considering my story thus far, those three aspects relate to my own ‘tale’. With the acknowledgment of growth, continuity of growth must be acknowledged, too. You might be expressing confusion as to why I am discussing growth-Well, I am an attractive model, ‘growth’ is normal for me. Disregarding innuendos and my poor sense of humour-I am Faith Labelle, and I am twenty-years-old. As a black woman and self-described ‘Cookout Auntie’ or even ‘Wine Auntie’ at this point, I have a certain pride for tradition, and family. I must, however, admit that traditional values were not originally in my repertoire-You see, as a child, I was constantly vacillated in-and-out of foster care. As a woman that did not originally have a conventional upbringing, I comprehend and empathise with the struggles of minorities, and those that are neurodivergent – as I, too, am on the spectrum and I have faced discrimination for both factors of being a minority, and for being autistic. Now, to continue onto my earlier point, growth must be acknowledged and pushed in the ‘beauty industry’-beauty does not require the designation of one particular mindset or ‘high standards’, or even a perceived stereotype of that person’s potential mindset. My contribution to Elegance’s company is to display diversity, and to be an authentic form of representation not through marketing means of being the sole ‘Token Black Woman’. Before being scouted by a particular agency, I had no yearning to model – However, through the possibility to ‘be the change’ and to be an inclination of light for the community that I am a part of, modeling has alternated into ‘more than a job’-it has become justified reasoning.