Zim Model Takes On World

Vuitton, Emanuel Ungaro and Loewe.Nyasha Matonhodze was eight years old when she left Zimbabwe to live with her mother in Northampton, London. The five foot eleven inches 16-year-old says she has good memories of her life in Zimbabwe, where her grandmother looked after her until she could join her mother in the UK.

She told New York Magazine that when she went to England, she saw that country’s perspective on Zimbabwe, which she says is completely opposite to what her experience of Zim was in her formative years.Matonhodze’s mother wanted her to be a model from when she was about 12 years old, but it was only when she had watched America’s Next Top Model that she decided to actively pursue it as a career.

Still, the youngster is surprised and excited to see her career gain momentum. Aside from her work with Louis Vuitton, she has appeared in Harper’s Bazaar, Teen Vogue and V Magazine and continues to make waves.She told New York Magazine that she stays grounded and focused thanks to her father teaching her the “Christian way of life” and her mother showing her how to work hard.