Halima Aden: Challenging supermodel stereotypes
The Interview
BBC
4.3 • 537 Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2020
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The designer catwalk and the glossy magazine cover are powerful cultural signifiers. Top models who occupy those spaces are deemed to have a look that attracts and sells. But how diverse is that look? How inclusive? Stephen Sackur interviews Halima Aden, a supermodel who challenged a host of stereotypes. She is a refugee from Somalia’s civil war; she’s Muslim and follows a modest dress code. Hers has been an extraordinary journey to international fame and fortune - how has it changed her?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a podcast from the BBC World Service. This is Hard Talk with me, Stephen Sacker. |
| 0:06.6 | Thanks for downloading this edition of the program. I do hope you enjoy it. |
| 0:10.9 | Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service. My guest was born into a life of insecurity and poverty in a sprawling refugee camp in northern Kenya. Today, she is one of the |
| 0:23.8 | world's elite supermodels, paid a fortune to stride down catwalks and grace the covers of glossy |
| 0:30.6 | magazines. Halima Aden's journey began when she was seven and traveled with her mom to a new life |
| 0:37.4 | in the United States. |
| 0:38.8 | They ultimately settled amongst the sizable Somali community in Minnesota. |
| 0:43.6 | Halima learnt English and adapted quickly. |
| 0:46.0 | By the age of 18 she was at college and ready for a challenge. |
| 0:49.9 | So she entered the Miss Minnesota Beauty Pageant |
| 0:53.6 | and was spotted by one of New York's top fashionistas. |
| 0:57.8 | Her rise through the modelling ranks was rapid. |
| 1:00.5 | The New York catwalks, the cover of Vogue magazine, and acceptance into the exclusive club of internationally famous models. |
| 1:09.1 | Throughout all of this, Halima has done things her own way, |
| 1:13.1 | covering her hair, dressing modestly, refusing assignments that didn't fit with her values. |
| 1:19.2 | Nonetheless, she works in an industry often criticised for its lack of diversity and inclusivity. |
| 1:25.8 | So is it really possible to thrive in this strange world and stay true to |
| 1:32.4 | yourself? Well, Halima Aden joins me now. Welcome to Hard Talk. Thank you, Stephen. Your life has |
| 1:41.3 | undergone the most extraordinary transformation in recent years. Do you still feel the |
| 1:49.0 | strangeness of it all? Are you becoming used to it? I don't think you could really ever get |
| 1:54.8 | used to fashion. It's a different world and so different to the world that I come from. So I'm still adjusting and every day it's something new. It's a different world and so different to the world that I come from. |
| 2:01.3 | So I'm still adjusting and every day it's something new. |
... |
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