- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
Alek Wek Quotes
Most Famous Alek Wek Quotes of All Time!
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- Last Updated on May 30, 2021
- Fashion Industry
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think the fashion industry has gotten to a place where it is embarrassing.
- Nov 07, 2020
When I think of 'Instagram models,' I say you have to take baby steps. You cannot just walk straight onto the runway.
- Digital
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was working, there was no digital. We actually worked; we used Polaroids.
- Children
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- Nov 07, 2020
I've seen mothers and children really being vulnerable in the refugee camps; it's supposed to be temporary, but they end up having children who have grown up in refugee camps.
- Heart
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- Nov 07, 2020
I'm an artist at heart.
- Education
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- Nov 07, 2020
Everything has to do with education: If you educate the girls, you educate the family, the community, and society, in general.
- Different Levels
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- Nov 07, 2020
I don't even know where to start in terms of people having such an issue about color, especially being dark. I just think on different levels it's ignorance; it's no belief, no confidence, it's insecurity, so you want to inflict it on somebody else.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I started modeling, it was like, 'Oh, she's too dark,' and I kind of looked at them like, 'You're too daft.'
- Coming
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- Nov 07, 2020
Black girls, I feel, rock, in so many ways, especially coming from five girls.
- Beautiful
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- Nov 07, 2020
My mother always has embedded in us that you guys rock in different ways, and to be able to celebrate that with each other is just beautiful.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
You could fancy what you'd like, but as a woman, my mother always raised us to believe in ourselves. I am very grateful that my mother brought me up that way.
- Celebrate
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- Nov 07, 2020
I think beauty is not just about what we put on our heads or on our faces or what we wear: it's deeper than that, and if we can celebrate that, celebrate the women, not just the superficiality... I think it would be really gorgeous.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I have short hair. It doesn't make me more unattractive than a woman or my sisters that have more longer hair and a bit lighter.
- Being
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- Nov 07, 2020
It's an awful feeling, being hungry.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
Restaurants serve huge portions on even huger platters, and people are tempted to eat too much.
- Live
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- Nov 07, 2020
Many live to eat, instead of the other way around.
- Ask
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- Nov 07, 2020
In restaurants in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I always ask for a doggie bag to bring the leftovers home.
- Like
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- Nov 07, 2020
I like to accept it all, the negative and the positive.
- I Am
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- Nov 07, 2020
I am not really into buying a lot of expensive things.
- Nov 07, 2020
When you give, you receive.
- Small
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- Nov 07, 2020
It's a small world when you're from South Sudan.
- Home
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- Nov 07, 2020
London is like my second home. I've still got friends there from school and from when I first started in the modelling business - people such as Karen Elson, Jasmine Guinness, Jade Parfitt.
- Love
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- Nov 07, 2020
I've always loved to paint - I was studying to do an art degree when I was approached to become a model - and I've being doing some design work as well. I also love just having a quiet time, sitting in my little library at home in Brooklyn and reading or watching documentaries or listening to music.
- College
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- Nov 07, 2020
I was working part-time as a cleaner while I was going to college and then babysitting after school.
- Happy
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- Nov 07, 2020
I grew up in southern Sudan, one of nine children. Our life was simple but very happy.
- Family
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- Nov 07, 2020
War tore my family apart.
- I Am
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- Nov 07, 2020
Whenever I feel I am going through my own 'little' challenging moment, I just think about my mom.
- Live
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- Nov 07, 2020
We eat to live.
- Modeling
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- Nov 07, 2020
Starting modeling in the '90s, it was quite surreal. They were like, 'You're so different! So weird! So bizarre!' And I'm like, 'I'm so normal. What are you talking about?'
- Friends
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- Nov 07, 2020
I love cooking. I love having friends around.
- Just
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I talk, it shouldn't just be black girls listening.
- Experience
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- Nov 07, 2020
All the exhausting aspects of my job are made worthwhile because I get to experience so many different cultures. It makes you really appreciate the memories.
- Sometimes
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- Nov 07, 2020
It's sometimes tiring to get off a long-haul flight and go straight to the studio for a shoot, but if you really plan everything well, you can get so much out of combining travel with work.
- Nov 07, 2020
I grew up in a small town in Sudan. There weren't many cars, so we did things in the countryside near where we lived.
- Become
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was 14, I came to school in London. I remember it was very cold, but also having to adjust and become fluent in English.
- Mind
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- Nov 07, 2020
You can feel very strongly that someone doesn't like you. I think any model who didn't have the same sort of upbringing as me would find that very difficult. But I absolutely knew I was entitled. I never thought I was ugly - it never crossed my mind.
- God
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I started, I'd hear other people saying, 'God, she's so bizarre-looking,' because I didn't look like the girl next door. But I was just normal. I was the girl next door. There were people in high fashion I could better relate to who were doing something more interesting and not talking this sort of rubbish.
- Fun
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- Nov 07, 2020
Going on safari in South Africa was hardcore but a lot of fun - though my friend Maura was absolutely freaking out about all the bugs in her hair and having to pee in the sand.
- Never
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- Nov 07, 2020
The beauty of reading is that it lets you travel in a way you could never know.
- Earth
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- Nov 07, 2020
We survived on natural resources, so we should take care of the earth. When I leave home, I do things like switching off the heat and lights.
- Future
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- Nov 07, 2020
Education is the key to the future.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
South Sudanese people are rich like the soil; they just need a little water, and they will grow.
- Live
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- Nov 07, 2020
I am so impressed by UNHCR staff who live and work side by side with the refugees. It's really remarkable.
- Life
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- Nov 07, 2020
I don't understand when people are being greedy or mean, when they say who should get what, when they get control of someone else's life.
- Important
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- Nov 07, 2020
My family is the most important thing to me.
- Feeling
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- Nov 07, 2020
If my mother hadn't encouraged me, I would be nervous and feeling like I'm doing something wrong.
- People
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- Nov 07, 2020
There are people who can look out for other human beings; there are people who can speak up when something is not right and say, 'This is wrong, and something should be done.'
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I feel, in 2015, when we see human beings and children dying to cross the ocean, trying to find safety, something more must be done to help them because refugees are just like me and you.
- Home
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- Nov 07, 2020
From nine years old, I lived with fear. I saw our neighbours disappearing. I was scared that I would come home from school and my parents would not be there.
- Inside
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- Nov 07, 2020
Bones inside clothes. That was war to me.
- Fashion
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- Nov 07, 2020
My experience as a refugee had made me strong; I could survive anything, even the world of fashion.
- Old
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I was 10 years old, I fled my homeland amid the bomb blasts of civil war in Sudan.
- Never
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- Nov 07, 2020
I never thought I would see a free South Sudan.
- Family
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- Nov 07, 2020
Leaving southern Sudan as a child was terrifying. It was 1985, and my family and I were trying to escape to Khartoum, the capital in the North, to safety.
- Fashion
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- Nov 07, 2020
When I first started modeling, I realised I was very different from many of my colleagues, but I welcomed the opportunities my career in fashion offered me and the support from many inspiring individuals in the fashion industry.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
For me, it always goes back to what my mother taught me and my sisters. That all women are beautiful, and we should embrace each other.
- Born
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- Nov 07, 2020
True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others.
- Family
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- Nov 07, 2020
I would love to continue to model but also have a family.
- Negative
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- Nov 07, 2020
Don't focus on negative things; focus on the positive, and you will flourish.
- New
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- Nov 07, 2020
Having arrived in London to seek refuge during the civil war in Sudan, where I was born, the thing I'm most proud of is having totally evolved. I came here not knowing how to speak English, but I went to school and learned; I adapted to this new culture.
- I Am
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- Nov 07, 2020
My life was filled with family in South Sudan. I am the seventh of nine children, and we grew up in what would be considered a middle-class family. We did not have a lot, but we did have more than a lot of other people.
- Only
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- Nov 07, 2020
Beauty is subjective and should not be limited to only what we see on the outside.
- I Can
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- Nov 07, 2020
I meet and talk to women from every corner of this planet, and I can find beauty in each and every one of them.
- Mean
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- Nov 07, 2020
Beauty does not mean one thing but not something else.
- Modesty
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- Nov 07, 2020
For me, you have to have some kind of modesty.
- Memories
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- Nov 07, 2020
The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don't celebrate those, they can pass you by.
- Dior
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- Nov 07, 2020
The fact that designers like Lagerfeld, Gaultier, Galliano and Dior could believe in Alek made me believe in myself, too.
- Power
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- Nov 07, 2020
I believe we should utilise any power we have for important issues that are bigger and beyond us. Whether it's with refugees or working to educate kids. I don't think you need to have gone through a civil war to do something. I believe as human beings, we can look out for each other.
- Music
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- Nov 07, 2020
When my friends talk about childhood, I've never heard of any cartoons or TV they remember. The only thing we share is Michael Jackson. That's how far his music travelled - to a remote village on the other side of the world.
- Down
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- Nov 07, 2020
When the militias came to Wau, they would blast out 'Thriller' as they moved down the dirt streets.
- Looking
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- Nov 07, 2020
I had serious psoriasis as a child - it's strange that I make my living off my looks after years of looking like a monster.
- Pleasant
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- Nov 07, 2020
I had jobs from the age of 14, when I arrived in London as a refugee. Aged 17, I'd get up at 4 A.M. to work as a cleaner before school. It wasn't pleasant.
- Gel
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- Nov 07, 2020
I use Johnson & Johnson! I use their baby oil gel.
- Children
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- Nov 07, 2020
We need to do everything we can to protect the health and welfare of children around the world, but fortunately, it's getting easier to provide things like medication and care.
- Nov 07, 2020
There's never too much you can do.
- Freedom
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- Nov 07, 2020
At times, we take freedom for granted. We really don't know how to cherish the freedom we have until it's taken from us.
- Family
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- Nov 07, 2020
Going back to South Sudan after the independence took place was deeply emotional for me because I had gone through the civil war with my family just before going to seek refuge in London.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
My mother has always instilled in us that we should carry ourselves with dignity despite the horror that came with the civil war. She also taught us that where you come from is very important because that's what makes you who you are. So for me, whatever I've gone through had profoundly shaped me; it has given me strength and unwavering faith.
- Nightmares
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- Nov 07, 2020
I used to have nightmares about the civil war when I got to England at ages 14 to 15. It took me some years to get over that.
- Go
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- Nov 07, 2020
It was the most exciting thing to leave secondary school and go to college, to have that freedom to study whatever I wanted.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
I could never understand why other kids wanted to truant - my education here gave me everything. It's the place where I really got to flourish.
- Me
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- Nov 07, 2020
There are mothers who sew for six months to make a fashion collection - someone's grandmother, someone's sister. We come in and get paid to walk for 10 minutes at the end. Whenever I think about that, I realise it's not about me. I was just the one chosen to represent those women and sell the clothes.
- How
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- Nov 07, 2020