It's a matter of changing perspective | Jessica Gyasi | TEDxAmsterdamWomen
Jessica Gyasi |
TEDxAmsterdamWomen
• December 2018
Jessica Gyasi is a Dutch model, writer, filmmaker and coach with Ghanaian roots. She opens her TEDxAmsterdamWomen talk by sketching a scene at a modeling scout agency. "You're gorgeous. If you were white, we would have signed you on the spot. Next." This is not the first time she's heard this statement. "Can you imagine what it does to the self esteem of a 15-year-old girl if you have to work twice as hard because of the color of your skin?"
Jessica Gyasi started her professional modeling career at age 15, which changed her life completely. During her early years of modeling, she experienced the same kind of "otherness" that she had experienced as a child: being black in a white-dominated world. This made her feel insecure, but her self-confidence grew over the years, with her platform "Model for Models" - aimed at empowerment, inner beauty and self-worth of girls and young women - Jessica puts the knowledge she obtained into practice.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx