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From winning the debut season of Africa’s Next Top Model (ANTM), to walking runways at major fashion destinations around the world, to working with world designers including Kanye West's Yeezy Collection, to sharing stages with legendary models, Naomi Campbell, Alek Wek and Veronica Webb; plus countless spreads in magazines and fashion collection lookbooks, Lugum has truly made it.
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Aamito won Africa’s Next Top Model (ANTM) in 2013
Yet, the 30 year old still struggles. To date, she considers herself underprivileged in the fashion industry; feels deeply insecure about her body and still struggles to fit in the multibillion dollar industry.
“I am very insecure about my body,” she said on the “Big Conversations” podcast on Saturday, May 20.
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“Because of the constant rejection about my body, I have that insecurity which, let me say, I go to therapy to get help with that.”
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Aamito says she is now facing rejection becuase of her wide hips
Lagum’s revelation is only one of many African models who have come out to speak about the pressures they face in pursuit of perfection.
Getting to that perfection could mean to some of these girls and women, starvation, grueling gym sessions, expensive surgeries and more, all in the name of conforming to Western sizes.
Although she seemed a perfect fit fresh from winning the African Next Top Model back in 2013, Lagum’s reality set in when she moved to New York and quickly noticed how big she was for the standard dresses there.
“ANTM was nothing. The real work started when I moved to New York. In ANTM they were slightly lenient, but in the real world, a fashion designer is not going to make you an outfit that only fits you, they will make a standardized one and if you don't fit in it, too bad,” she said.
“I am an african girl, I have wide hips naturally, and I am not going to have to cut off my hip bone. Those things made me feel insecure when they started denying me jobs because they were like ‘sorry, she has wide hips and she can't fit in the tiny dress.’”
Lagum is not the only African or Ugandan that’s faced rejection in fashion modeling.
Earlier this month, Ugandan-Australian model and author Susan Mutesi also opened up about feeling like a reject because of her size.
Mutesi recalled once being rejected by a modeling agency, because her body size was considered to represent ill-health.
“I get so much rejection even up to now… I remember once I had gone for auditions as a black young girl and a lady told me, ‘you are too black; you’ve got a big bum and what people will see is cellulite, so that can't work for runways."