Ticket to Ride

As a recreational mechanic, I wouldn’t advise changing your brake pads without gloves on...but oddly enough I feel entirely in my element posing nude in an auto body shop.

To me, this photo shoot illustrates the duality of my personality. There’s my soft, feminine side, and there’s my boyish side that loves working on cars and used to play rugby and chop down trees.

I grew up in a hippie town outside Athens, Georgia. We lived in the woods in a house my dad bought when he was 24. He was a cameraman and field producer for a hunting and fishing show, and my brother and I were homeschooled so we could travel with him on the job. I didn’t like homeschooling at first—I remember thinking, Dang, I wish I had the experience of being with a big pack of kids—but in hindsight I’m grateful for the independence it afforded me. Without the pressure of being a cookie-cutter high school kid I was able to become the self-possessed person I am today. In fact, I was such a strong-willed child that my mom’s friends used to joke, “You need to put her in boarding school!” to which my mom always responded, “I am never going to tell her to not be this way. No matter what, nobody’s going to be able to boss her around.”

It turns out my mom was right: The moment I set my mind on modeling as my profession there was no convincing me otherwise. Because my dad was a cameraman, I wanted to model from an early age. Starting at about four years old I would dress in themed outfits and give him art direction (“Take my picture here!”). I used to beg my parents to take me to auditions. They supported the idea, but they didn’t think of modeling as a real full-time career path. So when I was 19, I googled open casting calls in Atlanta and drove myself to the city without telling anybody. I signed with my first agency that day.

After a few years, I started to feel conflicted about modeling. I struggled with the idea of working in an industry that was by its nature self-serving. But then there was a huge shift when Trump got elected and the #MeToo movement took off. It’s like the pendulum swung the other way, and instead of being silent, everyone in the industry became empowered to use their voices. A switch went off in my head, and I realized that modeling could give me a platform to reach people and talk about the issues I’m passionate about. So I freaking love it now!

My goal moving forward is to keep building my platform and using my resources to empower and enrich young lives. I was a preschool teacher for four years, and whether or not those kids remember me now, my mission was to show each child they were loved, respected and, most important, heard. I believe the reason I’ve always felt empowered is that I had people who really listened to me as a child and showed me my opinion was valued. You have your whole life to learn new things, but you can’t re-create a happy childhood—and those missed opportunities contribute to our broken system.

I want to use my voice to help prompt a dialogue within society and within families. I want to combat voices that bring down self-esteem and capitalize on shame. I want to help build a world where connection and empathy are the currency of success.

And at some point along the way I’d love to become a new-wave Martha Stewart with a Jeep Wagoneer.

DATA SHEET

BIRTHPLACE: Winder, Georgia

CURRENT CITY: New York City, New York

ON EMOTION

I’ve always been emotional, and I think as a child I didn’t know how to process those deep feelings. If I saw somebody sitting alone in a restaurant, it would keep me up at night. I found out Santa Claus wasn’t real because I kept asking my parents, “Why do some kids not get the same amount of stuff as me?”

ON GUILTY PLEASURES

My guilty pleasure is going completely off the radar—taking a day to myself and doing absolutely nothing. This doesn’t mean a bath and a facial; it means I truly do nothing—not even respond to text messages. Sometimes you just need a day to be a full-blown potato.

ON HOPE

It’s hard not to be negative about the political climate we’re in, but I also feel extremely hopeful. Maybe I live in a bubble, but my bubble is full of passionate people who are exercising their rights to get out there and make change.

ON PET PEEVES

Constant complaining. I don’t mind when people vent to me, but I have a real issue with somebody who’s constantly like womp-womp. Of course there will always be things to complain about, but why not choose a different thought?

ON COMING PREPARED

What’s in my bag? So many things. I have four or five crystals, a jade roller, a heated neck pillow, sparkling water, rosewater and a figurine of a baby angel. It makes me laugh when I’m searching in my bag for my wallet and think, Oh look, a tiny angel!

ON LIT LOVE

I’m reading Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime because I’m halfway in love with him.

ON EARWORMS

“Just Like Heaven” by the Cure is always stuck in my head—and somebody played it on set! It must be fate.

ON ROLE MODELS

I’m obsessed with Jameela Jamil. I started out watching her on The Good Place, and then I found her Instagram and just dug in. I’m really inspired by how she uses her platform to create something that’s much bigger than her career. I’m a huge Michelle Obama fan too. She radiates positivity; I live by her quote “When they go low, we go high.” And I freaking love Oprah.

ON POWERPUFF GOALS

Last year I made my boyfriend a Mojo Jojo costume, and my two best friends and I were the Powerpuff Girls. I was Bubbles. Yeah, I’m Bubbles through and through. We’re both the epitome of crying at the club.