Top 70 Alek Wek Quotes

I could never understand why other kids wanted to truant – my education here gave me everything. It’s the place where I really got to flourish.

I am so impressed by UNHCR staff who live and work side by side with the refugees. It’s really remarkable.

When I talk, it shouldn’t just be black girls listening.

I was working part-time as a cleaner while I was going to college and then babysitting after school.

If my mother hadn’t encouraged me, I would be nervous and feeling like I’m doing something wrong.

I had serious psoriasis as a child – it’s strange that I make my living off my looks after years of looking like a monster.

Bones inside clothes. That was war to me.

My family is the most important thing to me.

The fact that designers like Lagerfeld, Gaultier, Galliano and Dior could believe in Alek made me believe in myself, too.

I believe we should utilise any power we have for important issues that are bigger and beyond us. Whether it’s with refugees or working to educate kids. I don’t think you need to have gone through a civil war to do something. I believe as human beings, we can look out for each other.

My father made sure of discipline, but my mum, she was serious business.

My mother always has embedded in us that you guys rock in different ways, and to be able to celebrate that with each other is just beautiful.

My experience as a refugee had made me strong; I could survive anything, even the world of fashion.

We eat to live.

I would love to continue to model but also have a family.

I grew up in a small town in Sudan. There weren’t many cars, so we did things in the countryside near where we lived.

I’ve eight brothers and sisters – five girls, four boys. I am the seventh.

Going back to South Sudan after the independence took place was deeply emotional for me because I had gone through the civil war with my family just before going to seek refuge in London.

When I first started modeling, I realised I was very different from many of my colleagues, but I welcomed the opportunities my career in fashion offered me and the support from many inspiring individuals in the fashion industry.

London is like my second home. I’ve still got friends there from school and from when I first started in the modelling business – people such as Karen Elson, Jasmine Guinness, Jade Parfitt.

Black girls, I feel, rock, in so many ways, especially coming from five girls.

The beauty of reading is that it lets you travel in a way you could never know.

I still have dreams in which someone is coming to the door.

There are tons of black girls modeling, and each one is special.

I feel, in 2015, when we see human beings and children dying to cross the ocean, trying to find safety, something more must be done to help them because refugees are just like me and you.

I don’t even know where to start in terms of people having such an issue about color, especially being dark. I just think on different levels it’s ignorance; it’s no belief, no confidence, it’s insecurity, so you want to inflict it on somebody else.

Many live to eat, instead of the other way around.

Beauty does not mean one thing but not something else.

Don’t focus on negative things; focus on the positive, and you will flourish.

I think beauty is not just about what we put on our heads or on our faces or what we wear: it’s deeper than that, and if we can celebrate that, celebrate the women, not just the superficiality… I think it would be really gorgeous.

There was no concept of fashion and catwalk shows where I came from.

When I was working, there was no digital. We actually worked; we used Polaroids.

I love cooking. I love having friends around.

When you give, you receive.

Whenever I feel I am going through my own ‘little’ challenging moment, I just think about my mom.

It’s a small world when you’re from South Sudan.

When the militias came to Wau, they would blast out ‘Thriller’ as they moved down the dirt streets.

The day you stop enjoying something is the day you should quit, if you can afford to.

At times, we take freedom for granted. We really don’t know how to cherish the freedom we have until it’s taken from us.

In restaurants in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I always ask for a doggie bag to bring the leftovers home.

For me, it always goes back to what my mother taught me and my sisters. That all women are beautiful, and we should embrace each other.

My life was filled with family in South Sudan. I am the seventh of nine children, and we grew up in what would be considered a middle-class family. We did not have a lot, but we did have more than a lot of other people.

Going on safari in South Africa was hardcore but a lot of fun – though my friend Maura was absolutely freaking out about all the bugs in her hair and having to pee in the sand.

When I was 14, I came to school in London. I remember it was very cold, but also having to adjust and become fluent in English.

I know how it feels to go hungry.

It was the most exciting thing to leave secondary school and go to college, to have that freedom to study whatever I wanted.

There’s one thing we all share: We eat to nurture ourselves, to feel stronger.

Leaving southern Sudan as a child was terrifying. It was 1985, and my family and I were trying to escape to Khartoum, the capital in the North, to safety.

I think the fashion industry has gotten to a place where it is embarrassing.

You’ve got to make yourself happy. I’m a happy person naturally.

I never thought I would see a free South Sudan.

Everything has to do with education: If you educate the girls, you educate the family, the community, and society, in general.

My commitment to refugees comes from a very personal place.

Having arrived in London to seek refuge during the civil war in Sudan, where I was born, the thing I’m most proud of is having totally evolved. I came here not knowing how to speak English, but I went to school and learned; I adapted to this new culture.

I have eight brothers and sisters, so I’d like to have a few children.

True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others.

When I was a girl, civil war in Sudan forced me to flee my home town of Wau.

I use Johnson & Johnson! I use their baby oil gel.

We need to do everything we can to protect the health and welfare of children around the world, but fortunately, it’s getting easier to provide things like medication and care.

I’m an artist at heart.

When my friends talk about childhood, I’ve never heard of any cartoons or TV they remember. The only thing we share is Michael Jackson. That’s how far his music travelled – to a remote village on the other side of the world.

From nine years old, I lived with fear. I saw our neighbours disappearing. I was scared that I would come home from school and my parents would not be there.

I like unique little boutique hotels, such as Blakes in London.

You could fancy what you’d like, but as a woman, my mother always raised us to believe in ourselves. I am very grateful that my mother brought me up that way.

Restaurants serve huge portions on even huger platters, and people are tempted to eat too much.

South Sudanese people are rich like the soil; they just need a little water, and they will grow.

I used to have nightmares about the civil war when I got to England at ages 14 to 15. It took me some years to get over that.

War tore my family apart.

It’s an awful feeling, being hungry.

I meet and talk to women from every corner of this planet, and I can find beauty in each and every one of them.