Adaora Akubilo is a Nigerian American model and has appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition for two years in a row now, 2012 and 2013. She was born in the United States to two Nigerian parents and lived in Nigeria for six years from when she was 10 till she was 16. Soon after returning to the States, she began to get coaching to become a model. She combined modelling with her education, before going into the career fully after college. She spoke to Culture Shock Nigerians on her experience.
When did you begin modeling?
I started modeling probably around 17. I was a sophomore in high school when I was approached by a scout. And it really wasn’t anything I thought about. I think my mom mentioned it to me when I was younger but you know, my father always drilled in my head to go to school so I was always academically oriented. It was all about school, school, school so I just didn’t see where the modeling thing fit in, but I talked to my mom about it and she was like sure. So, it was actually a modeling school.
I’m sure people have heard about those and they’re like a little leery about them but my experience was actually a positive one. I went to the school, I took classes, and kind of got myself familiar with what modeling was and stuff like that. I got placed in the city and got placed with an agency and I would kind of go in the city in the summer time to kind of model because I was in college. I eventually went to college and stuff like that, but it wasn’t until after I graduated college that I decided to pursue it full time.
