Nairobi News

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Supermodel who once lived in Kakuma refugee camp contemplates suicide


Top international South Sudanese model Alak Deng on Wednesday night took to social media to narrate the difficulties being a model.

Growing up was no walk in the park for Alak. Her family fell victim to the civil war in South Sudan and fled to Kakuma in northern Kenya where they spent three years as refugees.

On Wednesday, a teary Ms Deng took to Instagram to share how stressful life as a modeling, expressing suicidal thoughts as she blamed some of the people she works with.

“The people that work with you constantly tell you that you’re a horrible person. If I do commit suicide, know that it’s because of you,” she said.

QUITTING MODELLING

In 2016, she took to Instagram and said she was quitting modeling, only to return to the runway a week later. At the time Deng said she was quitting due to ‘fakes and lies’ in the fashion industry.

“I am happy to announce that I am officially done with the fashion industry, I will be moving back to Australia in order to live the life I fully deserved. Which is real life,” Deng wrote. “I can no longer deal with the fakes and the lies. My life is too short for this dramatic life.”

Since being discovered in 2008, Deng has walked in runway shows for Dior, Louis Vuitton, Valentino, Marc Jacobs and Jean Paul Gaultier in addition to being featured in many global campaigns.