Why Being a UNICEF Ambassador is the Most Proud Achievement of Model Halima Aden

The Somali-American model Halima Aden breaks the barriers in the world of fashion. She marked history in 2016 when she wore a burkini and hijab at the Miss Minnesota USA contest. The following year, she became the first model wearing the hijab to sign with IMG Models on her own terms.

Now, Aden is the star of the new July issue of Teen Vogue. As part of its cover, Teen Vogue filmed Aden during a trip to Kakuma, the refugee camp in Kenya where she was born.

She is also the new ambbadador for the United Nations Children's Fund, or UNICEF, which she says she's most proud of her achievements to date

"My Mom May Choose a Vogue magazine and she does not really understand.When I told her about UNICEF, she started crying, you know, when I told her this news, it was like the first time in my modeling career that she was really, really proud of me. "" "Because I think it's like a difference in culture, and she does not understand as the impact of the performance for the first time, but she understands that I'm working with UNICEF. "

As she was growing up in the refugee camp, she said that she had never felt victimized.

"I was a child, but I had nothing to say in my situation and I always thought I was here for good reason, you know, it was not One mistake we were – these are the cards that my family was treated. So, I think that has a lot to do with my positive outlook on even the camp, "said Aden.

Even though they had no toys, Aden said that his family had a sense of community. Her mother took her with her brothers and sisters around the camp "to make sure we felt comfortable with the other people who lived there."

"She wanted, as soon as his younger age, accept differences and different cultures and I think that has a lot to do with who I am today, "said Aden.

She said that she sometimes feels guilty because for his family to have left the camp, it meant that the others did not have the same luck.But that made sense to Aden.

"This was not easy, "said Aden." Since it took years for my family to go through the selection process to enter the country, but I feel: "OK, I got here." What am I going to do with my life? m empower girls who will never have this opportunity that I've made? & # 39; "