Anok Yai: The Accidental Model

Dreams of discovery happened unexpectedly for model Anok Yai, back in 2017. The Egyptian born American model of Sudanese descent was photographed at one of Howard University‘s homecoming events and the adventure began. Her picture was posted on TheSUNK‘s Instagram account by Howard University alumni Steve, who told her that “he was taking photos of people with nice outfits and that there was a chance the photos would go viral.”

She took the opportunity, posed, and sure enough, her phone began blowing up.

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Anok Yai had stated to the Boston Globe, “My phone just started vibrating rapidly for a long, long time. At first, I honestly thought someone made a meme of me or something.”

Did anyone else’s heart break reading that? Or was that just me?

Fortunately for Anok, she was being praised for the Goddess she is.

Then only 19-years old, she was studying Biochemistry at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. Excuse me. What? Biochemistry? Beauty and brains.

Now 21-years old, Anok appears on the January 2019 cover of Elle.

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And to think that she considered this a far-fetched dream, as quoted from The Insider, “It was a dream that I always wanted, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen.”