“When I started, I'd hear other people saying, 'God, she's so bizarre-looking,' because I didn't look like the girl next door. But I was just normal. I was the girl next door. There were people in high fashion I could better relate to who were doing something more interesting and not talking this sort of rubbish.”

South Sudanese-British model and designer

Alek Wek is a South Sudanese-British model and designer, born in 1977. She began her fashion career at 18, in 1995, and became known for reshaping ideas of beauty in the fashion industry. She is from the Dinka ethnic group in South Sudan and fled to Britain in 1991 during the civil war in Sudan. In 2015, she was named one of the BBC's 100 Women.