Building A Brand: Black Models As Entrepreneurs

Remember the beloved reality TV show America’s Next Top Model? Many of those models on the show have ventured into other career paths from acting to practicing law, and so on. That’s because at some point, they wanted to be more than just a model. Take Naomi Campbell, for instance, her modeling career is one of the most successful we’ve ever seen with longevity at the helm. Yet, she has other ventures and organizations that she attends to.

Being a model for some time is difficult, from large tolls on your body to your ego. For Ford curve model Courtney Granberry, starting a business was an alleyway into a new career path to combat that. Sometimes though, modeling can be a career that does keep going like Campbell’s with other endeavors to get into like JAG model Selena Ayala who still models at 41 and has a mental health and wellness brand Routine.

23-year-old model Adora Mehala didn’t consider having a personal brand when she first started in the fashion industry but has since found herself working in communications doing creative counseling for a myriad of industries (Mehala is signed to Ford). Meanwhile, 30-year-old Ford signee Janelle Durham has also leveraged modeling to pivot into the wellness sphere. Each of these women gives insight to keeping a long modeling career and capitalizing on a personal brand while creating new business skill sets.

Durham’s quest into the wellness industry was a strategic pivot from modeling. She was intentional about utilizing her career to get into that space and says it was always in her plan to do so. She’s still learning and growing as she’s in the budding beginnings of her business. Attributing women like her mother and aunt who’ve been business owners since she was a child is important to Durham–in an email, she shares that they’ve always served as mentors and sources of inspiration for her. “I like to say I was raised by visionaries,” she noted.

Granberry and her affinity for food stems from her father who is a chef–her Guyanese mother injected a whimsical and innate sense of travel in her. Granberry created a personal brand that surrounded both of those affinities with a show she wrote called “Models Eat Too.” This venture is a stride in the right direction for the 33-year-old who attributes her parents as her mental health support system which allows her to feel comfortable doing more with her career. She shared that she leans on her fellow models as a soundboard too.

“I truly believe I couldn’t have made it as far as I have without other models believing in me and coaching me. People love to say Black women don’t stick together, but let me tell you about the girls in my world; to stop at Black excellence would be a disservice,” Granberry told ESSENCE. “Sometimes in this industry, you feel like things are over and your time is up, but it’s a matter of times changing. I’m not just a model; I’m a living idea of what you can achieve through persistence,” she added.

Separately, Ayala and her mother’s plans for her modeling career were strategic. In 1997, when the 41-year-old began her career, they structured her career as an S-corp business with her as the employer. This inspired her to keep an entrepreneurial spirit with a journey to a new venture she called Routine, an online business focused on nutrition counseling and health coaching. She shared that this second business in her life has been a journey of personal growth and learning. She calls the strides she’s made a “testament to the resilience and adaptability that entrepreneurship demands.”

Selena started modeling at 14 in the late ‘90s when personal branding was becoming mainstream. Once the early aughts hit, she felt a shift in the fashion industry’s perception of personal branding. Social media and its prominence grew and gave people an authentic behind-the-scenes experience of career paths.

Once she earned her clinical nutritionist credentials, she says she leveraged the connection she had with the internet’s platforms and shared her knowledge about health education. With her mother’s direction, her personal brand and business have grown significantly. “My mother is the backbone of my business,” Selena said. She expresses that she has recently been investing in herself by reading business psychology books and taking online classes. Topical podcasts are a favorite of hers too.

Mehala calls her entrepreneurial journey a “crescendo.” It’s been filled with high peaks of opportunities and leaps of faith. She says she graduated from college when she initially started modeling. A personal brand was far from her mind at the time as she wasn’t prepared for the creative industries by her school.

She credits modeling as her confidence boost to advocate for herself and follow her intuition as she gained more visibility through her work. Mehala’s career has blossomed behind the camera as she’s started working with clients from designers, journalists, and fellow models.

As a model, especially a Black model, a different or added career path is always a plus. What some people call a side quest can sometimes be more fulfilling than your current position as a model. From these narratives, setting forth on a new lane is beneficial for your mental and emotional well-being. The modeling industry can seem vapid and filled with more cons than pros, but these models have been determined to change that with their entrepreneurial aspirations.