Kenya-raised Adut Akech named world’s number one model
South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech has been named the world’s number one model.
Akech was born in South Sudan and raised in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya.
She was seven years old when she moved away from Kenya along with her mother to Adelaide, Australia as South Sudanese refugees.
She was Akech introduced to the fashion industry by her family and started her modeling career at 16 years.
The 19-year-old took the industry’s vote by storm for Models.com Industry Awards.
Gigi Hadid, 23, scored the reader’s choice vote for the female model of the year.
Akech opened up on Tuesday that she cried every morning and night in 2018.
Taking to Instagram on New Year’s Day, the supermodel said that despite her successful career she ‘suffered from really bad depression and anxiety’.