Not To Be Confused With

Heal South Africa is an initiative that I have taken part of in order to increase awareness of the injustices to women abroad. Simultaneously, the effort has restructured the goals and objectives of my career.

I have been labeled as a model, defined as one who represents or employed to display merchandise. Few are aware of the work-for-hire effects that this places on the individual. A meeting yesterday at the Chrysler Building allowed me to explore the interchangeable characteristics that models share. The reality is that looks are interchangeable and your look is at the discretion of another individual whom we surrender "power" to. Power is exemplified when attending a casting/audition and the "director" on the other side of the desk takes a look at your pictures while making gestures, often times not in your favor, only to say "thank you". Then, the effect of rejection takes over and the resiliant ones muster up energy and throw their efforts at the next casting, while others dwell with frustration and seek to improve some "flaw" that someone else identifies; yet the power vests with them.

The point conveyed was that branding, an element borrowed from the field of marketing, establishes either a person or an object as the lucrative entity that in turn attracts capital. Take Lady Gaga for example, the result of strategic planning to create a modern-day Madonna. Her talent is unquestionable but more are attracted to the figure that dresses distinctly different from the norm, a brand.

I am not a model, but a person equipped with a legal education who everyday strives to leave an impact on the world surrounding me for others to take example from.