Super Model Joan Smalls on Posing Nude, Self Love & Fashion’s Responsibility to Showcase Diversity

Getting naked for Lui September issue:

I told them to make sure they give me leeway before they were shooting it just so I could feel or think I was in shape. But it’s about being comfortable with your body.

On how she began to accept herself and her body:

Probably putting less pressure on myself and not caring about what other people think. I feel like a lot of your confidence can be steered by what people say or what people criticize or what they visualize and I think once you let that go, that’s when you feel sexy.

Where she sees the fashion industry is with diversity:

I just feel it’s always a conversation that needs to continue happening for it not to become a thing, you know. You see it every day as a topic. It shouldn’t have to be that we’re always making mention of it because it’s a norm now. We’ll see. I feel like sometimes certain seasons, it’s good and then the next season it’s not so good. I just think it’s more about awareness. You walk in the streets in New York. You see people from different parts of the world.

Click here for the full interview.

By -@authorsequaia