Selena Forrest

From the moment of her first exclusive opening slot for Proenza Schouler in late 2015, the great Selena has hypnotized with her androgynous, cool girl appeal. The Cali Queen with a dash of southern hospitality (she was born in Lafayette, Louisiana) has sauntered through just about every fashion runway worth mentioning but her start was as laid-back as her demeanor. “I was at the beach with my cousins and brother and we had a cooler and of course as some youngings on the beach, a security guard had to stop and check. Sad thing is they took the alcohol but the good thing is during that commotion, a lady ran out of a restaurant and asked, ‘have you ever thought of modeling?’” Blowing it off as just another empty offer she almost walked away. “She said ‘let me take a picture of you’ and had the camera all up in my face. I just grabbed the camera and literally took a selfie.” That innocent selfie sealed the deal for her being signed and soon she was dominating the fashion capitals and landing our Top Newcomers list for the Fall 2016 season. What’s better is she doesn’t take her enormous privilege for granted, using her platform to advocate for models to stand up for their natural selves. “Honestly, just being here and where I came from,” stands as Forrest’s proudest moment. “I’m here representing for my colored girls trying to have my natural hair all the time. When I first started they wanted to straighten my hair all the time and it was killing me! So, I finally made a post that somebody burned my hair and this isn’t cool. After that people just started to make me natural all the time which was amazing.” Standing firm in her belief that she is good enough, she wants to give others on the rise the same level of confidence that she was able to build. “(I want to) start a foundation for kids that have kind of gone through the same thing as me and didn’t have the outside support that I did from aunts and uncles. You know, coming from broken homes, drug addiction, and alcohol. I’d really love to talk to kids because they’re the future.”