Jamaica, Queens native Indira Scott was first scouted while working in a Reformation store in 2018, and in the time since has walked for the likes of Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Jacquemus – to name but a few. 

Like many black women, the model had previously been discriminated against because of her hair: now, her hip-length box braids, often decorated with metallic threads and wooden beads, have become her signature look. “Losing a job or getting asked by a professor to change your hairstyle because ‘it’s too distracting’ just wasn’t a narrative I was willing to accept,” she explains. “At the time there were no people in magazines or on runways with box braids to show to the world how beautiful they are, so I decided to do it myself.”

In the not-too-distant future, Scott wants to use her platform to create a safe space where people can feel “beautiful and that they are enough”, by going behind the camera to document the “raw and transparent” beauty we don’t see in magazines. “Maybe I'll make my own magazine or put them in a gallery somewhere,” she says. “I’d get it out to the world one way or another.”

How do you want to influence the future?

Indira Scott: I hope I can influence the future by creating more space for people that can relate to me to feel beautiful and that they are enough. To encourage them to create even more space to allow other colourful, vibrant people to do the same. It’s all connected. 

What issues or causes are you passionate about and why?

Indira Scott: Inclusivity: because we all need to feel recognised, represented, and valued. We have so much to learn from each other in order to grow. Climate change: loving/nurturing mother nature goes hand in hand with loving ourselves, we’re all one. Protecting the longevity of our planet should be so important to us all because if we don’t get climate change (science) under control then nothing that any of us are fighting for will matter. Educating the youth: the youth is our future, it is our job to give them the tools necessary to raise their awareness on fair economic growth, environmental sustainability, and love to create a better planet for us all to thrive on. 

What creative or philanthropic project would you work on with a grant from the Dazed 100 Ideas Fund?

Indira Scott: I’ve always had a passion and natural talent for photography, so a creative project. I would love to dive into buying a film camera and photographing some real, raw, and transparent people because there is so much beauty in the stories that we don’t see in magazines. They deserve to be discovered and seen. Maybe I’ll make my own magazine or put them in a gallery somewhere. I’d get the art out to the world one way or another.