Alek Wek (1977- ) is a supermodel from Sudan. She is known for being dark-skinned with very short hair. She was at her height from 1997 to 2004, though she models even now in her early 30s.
She is a Dinka from southern Sudan, near the middle of Africa. Her father was a schoolteacher; she was the seventh of nine children. Growing up she did not know she was poor and black. Her family was together and she was happy. She did, however, have a skin disease, psoriasis, and thought she was ugly. The doctors could find no cure.
Then the war came. She saw bodies on the way to the well. When soldiers shot out their front door one night, they knew they had to leave. Her father got hurt and went to Khartoum, the capital, for an operation.
At age ten she talked her way onto a military plane leaving for Khartoum, where her father lay. As she got on board she turned to look and saw the sadness in her mother’s eyes. Soon the rest of her family got to Khatoum, but then her father died of the operation.
Her mother just wanted her children to wake up every morning safe and be able to go to school. So she got Alek to London where one of her older daughters lived. Alek arrived in London in 1991 at age 14.
Soon after she got to London her psoriasis went away.
Four years later while shopping in south London she was discovered by Fiona Ellis, a scout for Model One. She did not take it seriously and, besides, her mother said she should complete her schooling first. She was going to the London College of Fashion at the time.
But Model One kept calling and Wek saw that they were serious. She had some pictures taken and then offers started coming in. It changed her idea about herself. She talked her mother into it.
She signed with Ford in 1996 and became a fashion model. Whenever someone asked for black models she never went. She found that sort of thinking backwards and disrespectful.
Her big break came when she appeared on the cover of Elle in November 1997. The rest is history. That year MTV named her model of the year. I-D magazine went further and named her model of the decade.
Oprah said of Alek Wek:
If you’d been on the cover of a magazine when I was growing up, I would have had a different concept of who I was.
Although I am glad she is out there helping to stretch people’s idea of beauty, I do not think she is beautiful myself. She is striking and hard to forget, has a great smile and looks like a work of art, but I would not call her beautiful: No, I honestly do not think it is her dark skin, but her eyes. They seem too squinty or something and for me eyes makes the difference between pretty and beautiful.
See also:
Abagond 
ugh! look at her features, i don’t know who said it first but beauty truly is in the bones. not the skin tone, hair texture, or length. gorgeous she is.
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here is her Fashion Spot link, http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f52/alek-wek-25144.html
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Alek is a great example of how relative the view of what’s “exotic”.
She looks stereotypical Dinka, but to the Western world (who has no real knowledge of her ethnicity and its people), she’s so unusual. Yet, in southern Sudan, she’s almost indistinguishable. Matter of fact, there’s way more “traditionally pretty” Dinka women.
You can say the same about Iman. She’s protypically Somali. She looks great but there’s way prettier Somali women. Yet, like Alek, she had a look that the Western world weren’t really acquainted with. This helped them both stand out in this part of the world and drove their success.
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Also, Wek appeared in a few music videos: Tina Turner’s “Wildest Dreams”, Janet Jackson’s “Got Till It’s Gone” and Busta Rhymes’ “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See”.
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yeah she does look like a work of art.
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abagond i want to see your celebrity look-a-like
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she is absolutely stunning *faints*
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abagond rocks!
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Monica said:
abagond i want to see your celebrity look-a-like
LOL. I do not have a celebrity look-a-like!
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I agree, her “exotic” look is part of her appeal. It is something she plays up by cutting her hair so short. See how she looks with long hair:
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I was with you up until the last paragraph. Why even bother saying something like that?
Jeez.
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She doesn’t look right with long hair.
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mynameismyname said:
She doesn’t look right with long hair.
hahaah co-sign. You read my mind.
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i think she’s beautiful, she’s south sudanese like alek
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Now she is beautiful. Alek does have nice bone structure, and smooth rich skin, but that it. I’m with you on this Abagond.
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she is a truely beautiful woman, in both appearance and in chracter, i read her auto-biography and she is kind and wonderful.
we would benefit to have more of ms wek’s in the world. just my opinion!
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Alek Wek is somewhat pretty, but rather plain for a Southern Sudanese woman. She is average. But I don’t think the Dinka are the most beautiful Southern Sudanese, although, like all Southerners, they have perfect model bodies (tall and lean) and some do have very pretty faces.
Although I was unable to find any photographs that captured the Azande women’s beauty, the tribe of the Azande are very beautiful. I think the tribes of Equatoria (extremely south Southern Sudan) are the prettiest.
Look at this lady her face is perfect : http://www.flickr.com/photos/ngari/2321620482/
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I agree with the original post. I do not find Alek Wek pretty. I don’t even find her a little bit pretty. However I’m glad she’s there to challenge my notions of what is beautiful. I’m glad she has done well for herself and I hope she makes it easier for more African women to break into modeling. Her looks are just too striking for my comfort.
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tulio, do you believe light skin = beautiful? Just wondering.
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I think there’s lots of good looking models from Africa, many of them very dark. Many of the ones Abagond posts I like. Ugandan model Kiara Kaukaru was actually in one of my classes in high school and I thought she was hot even back then before she made it big. Now that is one beautiful dark skin model. I just don’t think Alek Wek is pretty, though I’m glad she has made it as a model and found an audience to appreciate her. I actually like the photo above with the gray suit, it’s a very interesting composition. She just doesn’t fit my idea of what I consider “pretty”. But that’s cool, she probably wouldn’t give me the time of day anyhow.
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Well, I think Alek Wek is attractive. Do I think she is beautiful, well, I think she is pretty. I think she has a beautiful smile. I saw her on a PbsStelevision show 1 year ago. An African American talk show host was interviewing her. She strikes me as being a very intelligent and elegant woman. Sometimes a person’s personality makes them more attractive. She was stunning to me. But you know what, people just have different ideas of what is attractive. I hope her skin color doesn’t have anything to do with why people have such a problem with her. There are many beautiful dark skinned African women. Look at this video. These women are beautiful south sudanese women.
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lets try this again.
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she is south sudanese too
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Thanks for sharing Jeri. There were some beautiful women in that clip.
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^^^
Many whites DO call her beautiful. In fact, they are probably her biggest supporters.
Ask her white boyfriend.
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I noticed that too.
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Maybe because she is very dark skinned and “exotic” to them?
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A lot of very dark models are with white men. Even Whoopi Goldberg who sure as hell ain’t no model has dated mostly white men.
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Jeri well said.
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i think she is cute, some pictures arent’ so flattering and she looks average sometimes. I think there are prettier South Sudanese women, but I like Alek, she’s a strong woman and a beautiful person.
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in that picture she looks so good, she looks beautiful. In this picture she looks gorgeous too. I actually do think she is beautiful now that I think of it, she just looks average in some pictures, but at other times she can look gorgeous.
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this is not a flattering picture they should show the good ones
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she looks good here too. She’s got a cute face at the least and gorgeous smile.
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Shes a beautiful woman with flawless skin.
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south sudanese beauty: http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg192/suigeneris1983/NYIMG_00019_LG.jpg
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abang othow
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This last link of the Sundanese woman, she looks way way prettier than Alek Wek. I just don’t get the whole Alek Wek thing. There are many beautiful African women, to me she is just not one of them.
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Alek can’t come close to Nigerian beauty Agbani Darego:
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@ Tulio All three of those women were pretty but Alek’s beauty is far more stunning to me. She will also be beautuiful longer than the other two women.
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I think Nina Keita from Ivory Coast is probably my favorite W. African model. Just stunning…
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yes she is stunning
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Jeri,
But, um, aren’t the large majority of black folks “dark skinned” (more or less, of course) their damned selves? LOL.
Nina is very beautiful. I’ve noticed her since her Old Navy ad days but what does she have to do with Alek Wek? She’s Nigerian, from W. Africa…she and Wek are on two different side of the spectrum.
Alek Wek looks like a run-of-the-mill Dinka. Many are actually a lot more “traditionally pretty” to her but in the Western world, her look becomes “exotic”. Goes to show you how relative that term is.
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That’s true, west and east African women have different looks. I just think that at the peak of her fame, Wek was becoming like the icon of African models to many people and I think someone like Nina Keita is so much more beautiful and there would’ve been much less controversy about her beauty than Wek.
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Abagond, for the first time, I disagree. I think she IS pretty, in some photos. There is a difference between what is model pretty, and what we call pretty. But after google imaging it, I think she is.
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I think Alex is gorgeous. She has flawless skin and nice facial bone structure. I think for most people, the fact that she is so dark in color makes them look at her as unattractive coupled with the fact that her hair is so low and she has somewhat of a flat/button nose. I’m an “eye” person, and her eyes are nothing special, but…neither are a alot of other models, so to me, her eyes definitely do not make or break her. Sure, there are plenty of other women I would consider more beautiful than she is, but there are plenty of others who, imo, wouldn’t even come close to her.
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i agree with abagond. to me Ataui Deng is more attractive, she’s just as dark and from south Sudan as well. however, as a general rule i don’t like conventional models that much – too gangly and curveless. my type is Charda XL, dark & curvy.
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