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Duckie Thot is a woman of firsts. She was the first of her Sudanese family to be born in Australia. The first time she did a photo shoot was for the top-rated Australia’s Next Top Model in the 2013 cycle. With only $400 dollars in her pocket a year ago, her first job in New York City was with world-renowned makeup artist Pat McGrath, something she’d always dreamed of and stated would happen for her.

Agencies:

New York  Model Management – New York

Premium Models – Paris

Storm Management – London

Chadwick Models – Sydney

Claim to Fame: Duckie (real name Nyadak) was inspired by her older sister, Nikki, who was a model in New York City. She auditioned for Australia’s Next Top Model which led to groundbreaking modeling career.

Instagram: @duckieofficial

At such an early age, Duckie has overcome a lot since embarking on the modeling scene as a contestant on Australia’s Next Top Model. With her deep dark skin and slender build, she’s faced so much discrimination but continues to be resilient against it all. Most recently, she drew a huge applause on social media after expressing the difficult journey of dealing with natural hair in the world of fashion. In an Instagram post, Duckie expressed she’s never had a good experience in dealing with her natural hair for the runway, beginning from her days as a ANTM contestant. “I was extremely upset and embarrassed that they ‘didn’t know how’ to cornrow my natural hair when at the end of the day that’s their job. I sat in front of the mirror silently crying before my shoot doing my own hair, cameras rolling while all the other girls had hairstylists, s#it scared I was going to get eliminated because a few ‘hairstylists’ didn’t know how to do their job.”  The comment garnered over 20,000 likes and stirred up 1,600 comments, reflecting how others not just felt Duckie’s pain, but also had similar experiences.

Perhaps Duckie’s success is her best revenge against the naysayers and negative people, having landed gigs with Refinery 29, W Magazine and worked with superstar Rihanna for a shoot with Paper Magazine which was another dream come true for Duckie. She’s also worked with Kanye West, modeling his fashion designs and has received serious props from fashions gods around the world. But Duckie clearly had goals further down the line in addition to her solid modeling career. Ultimately, she wants to help bring her homeland South Sudan to the level of belonging and prosperity it deserves.

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