My name is Roanna, I trained as a performing artists and I used to be a commercial and fashion model. I met endless people in both the performing and fashion industry obsessed with image and overindulging in clothes and products to fit the idealised image of beauty and fashion trends due to the pressure of expectations enhanced by the media.

In my experience...

As much as I loved expressing myself by performing and via photoshoots, I found the industry to be very difficult, fake, discriminating and simply quite dangerous! I know this through experience! I tried to challenge and help create change in the industry by being a spokesmodel and ambassador for campaigns such as “Models of Diversity” where you can find my article with a short insight of my experience.

But as much as I tried to help, I also tried hard to ‘fit in’; I lied about my height, I obsessed over my size and what I looked like. When you get told by designers and agencies that your arms are too fat, or your legs are too short, or your bum it too big, you gradually start to believe it! I came to the conclusion that maybe the fashion industry wasn’t where I belonged after all…

Whilst modelling and performing, I also took part in countless promotional events and activities for various companies and products including Veet, Pantene, Tresemme, Lynx, Nivea, Dove, L’Oreal, where my job was literally to persuade the general public or a target audience to buy something they never intended to!