Photography Daniel R. Winters
Make-up Rachel Rodrigues
Hair Cassi Young-Paxton

Zephorah's Shoes: "Club Zephorah" The John Ashford Collection
Zephorah's Dress: Jonathan Martin

You've seen her on the cover of Spanish Elle, she has been featured in plenty of American and French magazines and has been seen on the runways of Paris: I want to introduce you to Lu Sierra! She is a phenomenal woman! ZEPHORAHmagazine caught up with Lu to interview her on her life as a model. She was such an inspiration as she told us her story of how she broke into the modeling biz and became the ultimate career woman.

It all began for her at the age of Seventeen in Florida. She tried but didn't have much luck in the market. Each agency she went to told her she had to fix something. First, it was she needed clear skin, then she needed to fix her teeth, after that she had to fix her eyebrows… Whenever she was "fixed" she would return, only to be rejected again. They even threatened to call security! But that didn't stop her from her dream, so she decided that moving to New York would be the right thing to do. So at age seventeen, she moved.

When she moved to New York, she signed with a big agent, but not much work came through. She then signed with a much smaller agent. She realized then, that the smaller agents worked better for her because she became their BIG fish and received more work. With that she began her modeling career by doing showroom modeling which paid a couple of thousand per week. She saved her money by eating company lunch and spending very little on herself because she had even bigger goals in her mind. While other models invested their money on the latest fashions, she decided to invest her money to something much greater... Paris. Unfortunately, Lu didn't receive support from her her big agency. They laughed at her literally as she walked out the door... They told her that she would never make it in Paris. But with her money saved and determination she began her voyage and paid for a hotel room for a couple of months. After Paris, she had her sights on Italy and was successful in the fashion market there. When she returned to the US, she signed with Ford agency.

After she had much success with modeling internationally she decided that she wanted to extent her support to aspiring models. She became a model and runway coach for Miss USA and Miss Universe for three years. Miss Universe hired her to take it from just a pageant to the runway. The contestants were more excited because it gave them more freedom of walking and more options, instead of just posing and smiling. The ones that couldn’t walk as well, just walked and posed. The ones that could did half turns, etc. She even traveled with Ford models to Europe to train and choreograph the girls for the shows. While doing the choreography, she found that she fell in love with it.

In addition to being a model and runway coach, she incorporated seminars into her business. She felt that seminars would be able to reach out to aspiring models because she wants to help models because she wishes she had that same help. Her goal is to give honesty because so many models in the industry are being lied to and it is truly heartbreaking.

A lesson in her story is never to give up your dream, no matter how many doors are slammed in your face. Always push forward, and the will, will ultimately take you to your dream.

There are a few questions that I had for her:

Do you feel that times are changing for black models?