She was the first woman to star in a hijab on the cover of Vogue – twice – and made history when she appeared in_Sports Illustrated_ wearing a burkini. Today, decked out in glamorous black-tie gowns and sparkling in Messika jewels, Grazia’s cover star Halima Aden looks every inch the model poster girl. But, in 2020, the trailblazing fashion icon shocked the industry when she made the decision to quit the modelling game. ‘I was fortunate that I entered this industry with a massive bang and it was just go, go, go! But I didn’t have the chance to pause and reflect,’ she tells Grazia.
Her story is the stuff of fashion fairy tale. A former Somali refugee, in 2016, aged just 19, Aden caught the world’s attention – including French fashion icon Carine Roitfeld – when she became the first contestant to compete at the Miss Minnesota USA beauty pageant in traditional modest Muslim attire. A global modelling contract with IMG soon followed, along with a lucrative career, walking in catwalk shows for the likes of Tommy Hilfiger in New York and Max Mara in Milan.
Her choice to call it quits came when the pandemic hit. ‘The advice I would give to anyone is that it’s OK to slow down. Sit down. Take a breather. Meditate. Recentre. I think being grounded is the greatest gift you could give yourself,’ she muses. ‘I’m so grateful that I gave myself that time to step back from the industry and focus on what really drives my heart, which is wanting to represent my refugee community and wanting to be a good role model to young Muslim
girls looking up to me.’
Born in the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, before emigrating to the US at the age of seven, the 26-year- old has devoted the past three years to her role as a UNICEF ambassador, working with refugee camps in Nairobi, giving back to schools and the local community in her hometown in Minnesota and spending precious time with her family, especially her mother. ‘I’ve really got to know her on a…
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