Written by Elly Herrick, Staff Writer
Students of Indian Trail High School & Academy walk down the halls in many different attires. Some wear sweat- pants and sweatshirts, while some choose to wear overalls with their own funky are.
For many, fashion offers a way to express themselves.
“I wouldn’t call myself a trend setter, but when I don’t dress like a hobo, I am kind of fashionable,” said Nashia Ogbuagu, a Med-Sci Academy junior at Indian Trail.
“I dress up for photography,” Ogbuagu said.
She began to get into fashion her freshman year.
“I would never tell them this, but my sisters actually got me into fashion,” she said. “You can have a flip phone with a camera. Just go for it.”
Ian Wojtak, an IT General Studies sophomore, didn’t express his fashion in school until recently.
“I came from a private school where we had a uniform, so I only wore the same two sweatshirts and khaki pants every day for two years and then I transferred here,” Wojtak said.
Uniforms limited his ability to express himself and how he wants to be seen by the world.
“I was finally able to wear whatever I wanted and get inspiration from other people. I just like doing that,” Wojtak said.
So what do high schoolers think of the Model of the Year competition, a world-wide competition with more than 250 voters that judge beyond a model’s looks?
Teens say they support the changing concept of beauty.
For the first time in the competition’s history, four out of five nominees for Model of the Year are black or mixed women. The nominees are Adwoa Aboah, Winnie Harlow, Adut Akech, Adesuwa Aighewi, and Kaia Gerber, daugher of former supermodel Cindy Crawford.
IT Communications senior, Peyton Spencer, talks about her fashion and expresses that beauty is universal.
“I always used fashion as a way to express myself. When I was younger, I had a lot of trouble fitting in and my home life wasn’t the best, but looking the way I wanted and expressing myself through my clothes were always a way for me to feel in control of myself. I’ve grown to love it,” she said.
Only one model can be nominated from each modeling agency. They must be over 18, and the agency must provide pictures and a biography about said model. They are judged based on how they have changed the fashion world in a creative and impactful way.
“I think it’s wonderful that the fashion industry is finally allowing different kinds of beauty to be shared with the world,” Spencer said.
With her iconic shaved head, Aboah encourages young girls to speak up on her online, judge-free organization called “Gurls Talk.” She started as a cover girl for Vogue magazine and was praised for how she embraced her diversity and impacted the fashion community.
“I think everything in its natural state is beautiful, but beauty is subjective and in the eye of the beholder.” Spencer said.
Harlow is not only famous for her rare skin autoimmune disease called vitiligo, but changing the standards of beauty by encouraging beauty for anyone with diseases or disorders. She rose to fame on “America’s Next Top Model.”
Akech has created platforms for her voice to be heard. In February 2019, she plans to debut a fashion show emphasizing the theme of family and how powerful it is to a person.
Aighewi, 26, expresses how far she’ll go for her two sons and has refused to let pressure from the industry break her.
In 2018, Gerber won Model of the Year at the age of 18 with only a year of modeling experience under her design- er belt. Gerber was nominated again, and she is making strides for women’s empowerment. She promotes the “Me Too” movement and encourages women to never back down from what’s right.
While a typical high school student couldn’t apply for Model of the Year, there are more than 336 modeling opportunities in Kenosha alone.
Ogbuagu supports the new emphasis on the person as a whole in modeling.
“It’s a way of letting others know that beauty really isn’t just physical or outer appearance,” she said.