I am probably going through yet another phase of development, a desire to speak my mind, more unashamedly, because boy...the thoughts that keep me up at night... ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Right now, there is a conversation going on about models who have reappeared after many years looking unrecognisable, and the narrative has really bothered me and I couldn’t figure out why. I think it is because, more often than not, when someone has actually disappeared and come back, evidently and visibly having gone through a trauma, there are often other agents involved in intentionally hurting them who are not seen as accountable. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ This past week images of #CubanaLust (former model/video vixen who was exploited by manager and countless others) were trending and it brought up the stories of #SuzyPerez (model exploited by a fake modelling agency and sold into sex trafficking) and #YuggeFarrell (model exploited by a minister and his wife and force fed psychiatric drugs to make her lose mental capacity - please read her story) and honestly....it hurt. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ The ridicule towards these women who apparently ‘fell off’/‘lost their mojo’ versus anger over the many people who knocked away at their pedal stools hurts. And when it comes to the fashion industry, building systems not designed to knock people off their pedal stool for just being/ trying to dream-build, matters. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ I remember speaking to someone a few year ago, who considered herself a feminist but was so painfully insecure that she hated models. She couldn’t see that her so-called feminist stance was immensely hypocritical if she couldn’t bring this group of women into the fold - just because they happened to be deemed beautiful by society’s standards. Who cares what their actual stories were - eh? ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ Let’s challenge this whole ‘She fell off....He fell off...’ narrative a little more. Especially when you don’t know who, or what, did the knocking down.