Considering the effective use of social media, the traditional dynamics of achieving goals is changing. With the POTUS in the White House shaping policies and altering the trajectory of businesses from his twitter feeds, models like Nkem Ogbogu are also shaping their own narratives by building their modeling career outside the norm called modeling agencies. This teenager and budding pharmacist is generating her ‘fashion model’ portfolio organically with the use of social media.

Words By Sesan Adeniji

“My full names are Nkem Ann Ogbogu. I’m 16 years old and the last child from a family of six children, studying pharmacy in the university of Benin. I’m an upcoming fashion model and so far, the journey of becoming a model had been very challenging and not really an easy one.

Growing up as a young girl I always loved fashion but the idea of becoming a model came into play in my early teens, my last years in secondary school when people began to reference how much my body physique looked like that of a model.

When I got into the university of Benin, at first, I didn’t consider being a model but later on I thought about building myself and having a second career for me. And also due to the help of some very good friends of mine Emmanuel king, Victor Zaviano, David Iteboje who convinced me and in fact took most of my first photographs for my portfolio as a model, I began the journey of becoming a model.

I participated in Miss Ultra Cal C pageant and crowned Miss Pharmacy. At first I thought being a model was all about the runway, photo-shoots, joining an agency. But I was totally wrong, I think I found this out late and I feel a lot of aspiring models should know this. Being a model isn’t all about being in an agency. At first I was so desperate to get into one and they’re a lot of agencies in school, which made it possible for me to get into one.

At first I felt fulfilled, but over time I realized I wasn’t really gaining anything and it felt like I was just undergoing stress for unknown reasons. I can’t go into details but all I’m trying to say is “aspiring and upcoming models should focus on growing themselves first before anything else because obviously, a lot of managers will approach you mostly if they see you have all they need in a model but at the end of the day you realize you don’t achieve as much as you wished – It’s sad and disappointing.

When I realized this, I left the agency and became a freelance. Yes a lot of people are of the opinion that freelance models won’t really go far and tag them as Instagram models and all, but that’s totally wrong. As a freelance model, I’ve actually grown and had better improvements than when I was in my agency. Truth of the matter is…if you’re a model and you’re not getting the money, connection or even the fame and intellectual growth, you should check yourself.

Being a model has widened my mindset towards the fashion and business world and I have greater dreams I hope to achieve in the future” – Nkem Ogbogu

Socials

Instagram – @n.k.e.m._