Winnie Harlow

“We lived on our own for a very long time, and those are my happiest years, me and my mom.”

“I don't want to be put in a category.”

“I think we need to take a step back and realize what the real issues are - it's not being from different places or being different.”

“There is beauty in everything.”

“A journalist in Toronto named Shannon Boodram saw my Facebook page and told me I was 'strikingly beautiful.' She shot a YouTube video of me, and it made a hit, grabbing thousands of views. She said the camera loved me and that I should be a model. I had never thought about modeling - it just hadn't seemed possible.”

“Winnie Harlow is my alter ego like how Beyonce refers to her stage name as Sasha Fierce.”

“I've always been a lot about beauty and products, and skincare and make-up.”

“I don't think it's good to focus on being celebrated but to celebrate yourself.”

“My modelling career is about hard work.”

“I more so appreciate people loving the fact that I love myself and not just glorifying my skin or me.”

“I feel like I have so many amazing opportunities because of my immigrant mother, my immigrant grandparents.”

“Kids called me a cow and mooed at me.”

“Even as a little girl, my mom never wanted me to watch BET, but when I was at my grandparents' house, and my older cousins were there and I could watch it, I was infatuated with the idea that I could one day be a DJ or the host of a show.”

“I faced challenges as a kid, but who hasn't? A lot of people have experienced far worse. I was bullied, sure, and it was painful at the time. I even quit high school to get away from it. But I've never been the kind of person to let my past predict my future.”

“I've been doing my own makeup since I was 15. I would steal my mom's products, go online, watch YouTube videos of girls doing their makeup, and try.”

“Chantelle Winnie is my birth name. Chantelle Winnie Harlow, I call her my Sasha Fierce.”

“I loved myself. And with that, opportunities start to fall into my lap. And I thank God for all of them.”

“You can't let someone else lower your self-esteem, because that's what it is - self-esteem. You need to first love yourself before you have anybody else love you.”

“When I was in high school, I wanted to be so thick that I'd eat all the pizza and all the McDonald's and everything.”

“I want to see different faces on the covers of magazines, the stars of movies, featured on billboards.”