In a new video, the GurlsTalk founder shares some of the issues she’s confronted
“Someone asked me the other day, ‘Do you think people are born sad?’ And I actually do, I think I was born slightly sad,” says model, GurlsTalk founder and Dazed 100 star Adwoa Aboah in a new video from StyleLikeU. Aboah is the latest person to feature in the YouTube channel’s ‘The What’s Underneath Project’, which aims to “empower people to accept and express their true selves”.
In the 13-minute video, Aboah does exactly that – expresses her true self – by sharing some of the issues she’s confronted, including her battles with depression, drugs and self-hate. She admits that, after experimenting with drugs in her early teens, she began to use them more heavily until realising she needed help.
After a stint in an Arizona-based rehab, Aboah explains how she returned to London only to relapse and, in October of last year, attempt suicide by overdosing on drugs. She was in a coma for four days and, subsequent to that, spent a month in psychiatric care.
While Adwoa has had a successful modelling career (she’s recently starred in Calvin Klein’s SS16 campaign and Marc Jacobs’ AW16 show) she reveals the negative impact that this line of work has had on her self-esteem. “I think losing out on jobs and, you know, being judged on your appearance... I definitely grew a second skin and got used to it but, more so now, I’ve realised it definitely contributed to a lot of things I feel about myself,” she says.
“If you don’t like being in your skin it doesn’t matter how many times people say you’re beautiful, or how many jobs you get or whatever it is – I just didn’t want to be Adwoa,” she goes on to say.
Aboah also reveals what’s next for GurlsTalk – she’s in the process of turning her Instagram account into a fully-fledged charity. “It’s about opening up a space in schools, where we as women and girls can talk about whatever we want.”
Watch the video below and vote for Adwoa Aboah in the Dazed 100 here
