I’ve always been the tall, lanky, skinny girl. I got picked on for the way I looked at school. In the fashion industry it’s celebrated, but when you’re 13 and your family’s from the Caribbean, it’s not. So it wasn’t really my plan to be a model. I didn’t really know what a model did. I wanted to be an actress or a dancer. I was really self-conscious about how I looked, and obviously when you’re a model that’s what is highlighted.
I wish there was more diversity in the fashion industry and that it wasn’t such a thing to see a black girl on the cover of a magazine. I want it to get to a stage where it’s just the norm and we don’t have to celebrate it. I want us to stop using “the race” and just see a beautiful woman on the cover.
I found out I was pregnant at the worst time: on a family holiday. I was 18. I did the pregnancy test just as I was about to board the flight, and I was going to be staying with my family for 10 days, with them hovering around me. There were a lot of moments with me by myself, on the balcony, reflecting. It took a couple of days to get my head straight.
Having my son was the best decision I made. Initially, I worried what other people were going to think and say. Automatically, I said to myself: I can’t have this baby. And then it wasn’t until I stopped worrying about other people and started to think about what I actually wanted that I realised: “Yeah, I’m going to do this.” When my seven-year-old corrects me now on things, I think: “Oh, wow, I did a great job.”
My mum’s always like: “They’re just people, they all shit the same way as you do.” But meeting Beyoncé was different. It was at the Met Gala, at the end of the night. Cara Delevingne and I were walking down the steps to go home, Beyoncé and Solange [Knowles] were at the bottom. And they looked at us and started pointing and waving, and we were just like: “Wait, is she waving at us?” We were freaking out as we saw her glide towards us, and we didn’t know what to say except: “Oh my God, we love you, can we hug you?” She smiled and said: “Y’all so beautiful.”
I have a phobia and a real hatred towards mustard. It’s not a joke, I don’t even like talking about it. I don’t like the smell of it and I don’t like it when someone eats it and they have it on the sides of their mouth. The thought of it makes me want to be sick.
It takes a lot for me to lose my temper, but when I get frustrated I like to throw things. I’ve thrown my phone a few times and mashed up the screen because I get frustrated about things. But for the most part I don’t like to raise my voice or be aggressive.
I don’t like to hold on to anything negative that anyone has said to me. As soon as I hear it I’ll be bummed out, but then I just let it go. I don’t store those memories in my head.
Londunn + Misguided Season 2 is available at Missguided Westfield Stratford and Bluewater stores and at missguided.co.uk
