Mx. Nae Vallejo

Model Education: The Importance of Representation & Education Through Shared Experiences

Modeling and being an educator doesn’t seem like two worlds that would go together. However, Mx. Nae Vallejo blends both with ease. They draw the majority of their inspiration from teaching the youth and instilling love, encouragement, and support practiced during their own upbringing.

Written By Jasmine D. Lowe

Mx. Nae Vallejo

“I’ve always tied it back down to being from a big family,” said Nae. “I'm the oldest of 12. I have 11 younger siblings. Blended family. But nonetheless, 11 little ones running around with the age range being 22 years. My love for the youth has come from raising a lot of my siblings and myself, and that love and passion for the youth was instilled in me from a very young age with my own family. That's pretty much followed me around along with just experiences in the world reminding me just how much love that the youth goes without in their own families. I try to give what I was unable to receive from those around me, and it is a big part of why I give to the youth in life, find myself as an educator or a child caregiver.”

Nae, who is originally from Austin, Texas moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 2012 to attend Tufts University where their focus was on child study and human development. They aimed to mix early childhood education with a focus on queer pedagogy. They later got into modeling and have continued working in the city on a variety of projects.

“I've always just found myself modeling different things,” said Nae. “I try to model the behaviors and healthy practices that were never really modeled for me that I had to learn myself and help pass that along through modeling as well.”

Nae teaches these practices primarily to children aged two to five-years-old. They nine years of experience teaching preschool and they use those skills to educate children through a queer lens. They speak with families and educators about how to navigate queer pedagogy and how to start having those important conversations from a young age. They have integrated these skills with their work in the fashion industry to fill the need for more representation, especially for youth.

“I started jumping into modeling and was like, ‘This is something that I haven't done yet that I love so much,” said Nae. “I got my passion for educating, my passion for sports, my passion for academics, and then there's modeling. A big part of that was wanting to see me and

having only not ever seen representation of myself. It was really scary thinking of going into something and being the first of that representation that I've seen in that area. I wanted to model, but I've never seen a black trans, nonbinary model.”

Nae’s modeling and fashion career have always been centered within the queer lens. They haven’t done much outside of a queer focus, but they hope to eventually bring their work into the mainstream to cultivate more representation for the marginalized communities that they associate and identify with personally.

“I’m pushing for that mainstream representation,” Nae explained. “That is something that I would love to do and am striving for and that I feel like that's not at the top of the list of my priorities. I don't consider ‘making it’ to [mean] finally hitting the mainstream. The reason why I model is to cultivate the liberation amongst the oppressed communities that I'm a part of, and I'm [already] doing that within those respective communities that I identify with.”

Nae had some advice for young queer artists who have hopes of entering the world of fashion: “Always think about who you're doing it for, and if you're not the first name that comes to mind somewhere something got lost, or somewhere you got lost,” Nae explained. “It doesn't mean that you're on the wrong path, but if your name is not the first name listed then there needs some redirecting, and some going back and checking needs to happen. I think that whatever one's response as to what is at the center of your service is the most important foundation of what one does. For me, it is creating paths where there are none and maintaining openness and tenderness and vulnerability. I'm very in tune with being vulnerable, being tender, and being soft and just remembering the things that are very easy to forget and to work in such a world in which we live. Forgetting to be kind and forgetting to be tender. Just remember who you are doing it for, what it is at the center of your service and why.”

26 QTYPE Spring 2020