Adut Akech: Get-To-Know The Model Who Called Out Major Publication For Racism

Adut Akech raised concerns about racism after calling out an Australian magazine for mistakenly identifying her with fellow model, Falvia Lazarus, specifically noting that it would have not happened to a white model.

This fiasco happened when Who Magazine published a story of Akech along with an enlarged photo of Lazarus instead of her. According to the news outlet, Okay Africa, the public relations agency that was responsible for the blunder already apologized to Akech. However, the model felt that she needed to put her feelings and thoughts regarding the situation out there in public.

Akech took it to Instagram, with more than 500,000 followers, and stated that the incident personally insulted her as well as she felt a huge amount of disrespect to her entire race too. The model was upset and angry and felt that under any circumstances, the mistake was inexcusable and unacceptable.

A portion of the model’s post described those people who thought that every black girl or African people looked the same as ignorant and narrow-minded.

“I find it very ignorant and rude and disrespectful towards both of us simply because we know that this doesn’t happen with white models,” she said after sharing of being mistakenly called a different name of a model who happen to belong in the same Ethnicity as hers.

Akech made it clear that she did not intend to bash the magazine rather she felt the need to address the issue at hand. The model also spoke on behalf of those who shared the same experience with her and wanted this incident to serve as a wakeup call. [See Akech’s complete Instagram post here.]

Akech was born in South Sudan. According to CNN Style, she spent her childhood (first eight years) as a child refugee living at Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. When she became as a guest editor of the said publication, Akech shared her experience prior to reaching her current fame.

Akech described her childhood back in Kenya. She witnessed how adults from different backgrounds helping each other and how carefree their laughter was. She also remembered how she connected not only with her mother and siblings but also with others in the camp.

Akech’s aunt was reportedly the one who petitioned them so they could live in South Australia. Fast forward to eight years later, she stepped into the world of fashion. Despite the privilege of her career and travelling the world, Akech identified New York as her second home and met people like Adot Gak, Aicha Bassoum and Cheri Bowen, her manager in New York, who not only became her friends but also her family.

Adut Akech Bior is a South Sudanese-Australian model born on December 25, 1999. She stands 5 ft. 10 in. at the age of 19, according to the data in Information Cradle. She was reportedly called as Mary when she migrated to Australia because her teacher could not pronounce her name. Her career in modelling started when she was 16 years old with Chadwick Models.