Nya Gatbel Strolls Paris in Fall Boho Glam Looks for Madame Figaro France

South Sudanese model Nya Gatbel, is a refugee model arriving in Calgary, Canada at age nine. Nya admits to being bullied excessively in school because of her dark skin, height, and thinness — all qualities that now fuel her rise in today’s modeling world. In her model launch interview with the CBC TV, Nya expressed the feelings expressed by so many of these young women — articulated artfully by actor Lupita Nyong’o:

“I wanted to have light skin, I wanted to have straight hair, because that’s all I ever saw,” she says. Gatbel is a beautiful, strong symbol for dark Canadian girls to look up to and to see themselves in. Nya recalls that only seeing white girls in fashion magazines “created a lot of self-esteem issues for [her] because, when everyone looks the opposite from you but they’re the standard of beauty, it cuts you down a bit especially as a little girl.” Although Nya was not able to see anyone who looked like her in the fashion magazines as a child, she is honored to be just that for other young girls.

Today Nya Gatbel is featured in ‘Effets D’Hiver’ styled by Cecile Martin. Photographer Laurent Humbert is behind the lens for Madame Figaro France November 1 2019./ Hair & makeup by Vera Dierck