Happy Black History Month from Hoot! To celebrate the month, and Black people in the creative industry, we wanted to take the time to honor and acknowledge Black Columbia and Barnard alums working as creatives and changing the game. Keep reading to hear from path-breaking Barnumbia graduates on how to make it in the industry as a Black creative.
To be a model, producer, writer, and singer were Aimée Mehala’s hopes and dreams that she wrote in her diary to manifest three years ago. Today, she has been signed by one of the biggest modeling agencies, recently modeling for Skims, has worked as a production assistant, and is currently writing a fiction book. Aimée is a 22-year-old Leo based in NYC and Philadelphia, who graduated from Barnard in May 2022.
Aimée has been a creative since she was a child. She was involved in musical theater for 8 years, taught herself how to play guitar and piano from Youtube University, and was also a dancer. While she attended Barnard, however, her creative endavrors were put on hold as she focused on school and her work as a nanny and tutor until her senior year.
During her senior year, Aimée got an internship at a digital media agency as a production assistant. Then right before finals week of the spring semester, she was signed to a mother agency, and then subsequently had her first photoshoot during that week.
Aimée’s scouting story has a unique twist as she credits her identical twin for sending out her portfolio, reaching out to agencies, and putting themselves out there at a time that Aimée was preoccupied with work and school, and she did not have the resource of time “perfect” portfolio and digitals, which was an anxiety-inducing and time-consuming process for her.
Aimée, on the other hand, had the perfect social media profile, calling herself the “resident Instagram baddie”.
“ My sister, on the other hand, had a completely different experience in college. She was in her school magazine. So she has a full portfolio. I got an Instagram, she submits her shit, her mother agents, at the time, became my mother agents literally a week later, went to my Instagram and they're like y'all look the same …Bada bing bada boom.”
However, she explains that the process to get signed is the same for everyone. Get a portfolio (at least three photos), take digitals, submit them to agencies (make sure to do your research), and keep emailing and reaching out to agencies.
Aimée and her sister were then signed and placed at Ford models two and a half months later. Aimée then spent the next couple of months building her portfolio through test shoots before she booked her first job for Bare Necessities a couple of months later in January.
During this time, Aimée was struggling with modeling as she dealt with health issues including substance abuse, depression, and anxiety, which affected the quality of her test shoots that she felt did not best represent her, and decided to make a change about it, as she is currently 8 weeks weed free and is focusing on her health.
“I think modeling, honestly, is a lot about health. I think it’s health before looks, and you have to be in tune and aligned with your body.”
After her job with Bare Necessities, Aimée would then book her favorite and biggest job to date with Skims.
“This was a whole social media campaign, which was crazy. So I'm literally walking around downtown LA getting photographs. Like, just, that was just weird and insane. We did the shoot in the public and like, you just have to be very stoic. Pretend like no one's there.”
As fast and amazing Aimee’s modeling career has been, it has certainly come with its obstacles and challenges, as she feels that the industry and career are glamorized. A constant challenge she had to overcome was how resource-intensive modeling is. She emphasized that having enough resources, whether it’s the resource of time to build a portfolio, money to afford test shoots, or community to make the right connections and have support, can be the difference between getting booked or not.
She also opened up about the struggles of being a black curve model and the rarity of coming across photographers, stylists, and team members who know how to photograph, style, and deal with black and/or curvy bodies. As a black, curve model, she has had to overcome body dysmorphia and imposter syndrome.
However, she also acknowledges that her experience in the modeling industry overall (outside of runway) has not been as cutthroat as she originally thought it would be.
“It's not as competitive or as shady as you would think. I mean, obviously, there are like, moments where you can't just be super duper goofy, and I need to be like, professional on set. However, I can also be a little goofy at times. No one's out to get you. So don't go into it thinking that people are out to get you, so don't be deterred by stereotypes you've heard about or negative stereotypes.”
Aimée encourages finding community, getting to know everyone on set, and making friends in the industry.
“Realize that we're all in this together, and it will benefit you and them, you know what I mean? It makes them feel good, it makes you feel good.”
She also emphasizes confidence, practicing patience, believing in oneself, and not comparing yourself to other people.
When Aimée thinks of inspiration, Precious Lee and Paloma Elesser immediately come to mind as the two OG high-fashion Black Curve models whose careers she aspires to parallel.
“Representation is everything. And not only are they curve, but they are also plus size, and they are on the runway. You know what I mean? And they were in the industry when there wasn't space for that. They just kept at it And now look at them. They’re eating and making bank. “
Aimée also currently works as Media Producer and Strategist on the side. She has always known that she wanted to work in the media, and during her senior year, she got her first social media internship at a digital media startup, where she was responsible for pitching web series ideas centering content creators that would gain virality on the internet. Before that, she spent a lot of her time refining and building her graphic design and marketing skills.
