Zitat des Tages von Alek Wek:
Many live to eat, instead of the other way around.
South Sudanese people are rich like the soil; they just need a little water, and they will grow.
My father made sure of discipline, but my mum, she was serious business.
When my friends talk about childhood, I've never heard of any cartoons or TV they remember. The only thing we share is Michael Jackson. That's how far his music travelled - to a remote village on the other side of the world.
My life was filled with family in South Sudan. I am the seventh of nine children, and we grew up in what would be considered a middle-class family. We did not have a lot, but we did have more than a lot of other people.
I've eight brothers and sisters - five girls, four boys. I am the seventh.
True beauty is born through our actions and aspirations and in the kindness we offer to others.
It's a small world when you're from South Sudan.
You've got to make yourself happy. I'm a happy person naturally.
When I was a girl, civil war in Sudan forced me to flee my home town of Wau.
There are mothers who sew for six months to make a fashion collection - someone's grandmother, someone's sister. We come in and get paid to walk for 10 minutes at the end. Whenever I think about that, I realise it's not about me. I was just the one chosen to represent those women and sell the clothes.
Restaurants serve huge portions on even huger platters, and people are tempted to eat too much.
Beauty does not mean one thing but not something else.
When I was growing up, my mother taught me and my sisters to celebrate each other - there was no room in our household for negativity. She taught us to embrace each other, and this was empowering for us. She also taught us the value of celebrating our differences.
It's sometimes tiring to get off a long-haul flight and go straight to the studio for a shoot, but if you really plan everything well, you can get so much out of combining travel with work.
The most beautiful things are not associated with money; they are memories and moments. If you don't celebrate those, they can pass you by.
When I first started working with World Vision, I would sit down and talk with them about issues that concern any part of the world. MSF told me about what was going on in North Korea. I also support AIDS and breast cancer charities.
I never thought I would see a free South Sudan.
When I started modeling, it was like, 'Oh, she's too dark,' and I kind of looked at them like, 'You're too daft.'
We need to do everything we can to protect the health and welfare of children around the world, but fortunately, it's getting easier to provide things like medication and care.
I had serious psoriasis as a child - it's strange that I make my living off my looks after years of looking like a monster.
I would love to continue to model but also have a family.
In restaurants in my Brooklyn neighborhood, I always ask for a doggie bag to bring the leftovers home.
I know how it feels to go hungry.
I think beauty is not just about what we put on our heads or on our faces or what we wear: it's deeper than that, and if we can celebrate that, celebrate the women, not just the superficiality... I think it would be really gorgeous.
There are people who can look out for other human beings; there are people who can speak up when something is not right and say, 'This is wrong, and something should be done.'
When I think of 'Instagram models,' I say you have to take baby steps. You cannot just walk straight onto the runway.
Beauty should not be culturally relevant; it should be universal.
When I first started modeling, I realised I was very different from many of my colleagues, but I welcomed the opportunities my career in fashion offered me and the support from many inspiring individuals in the fashion industry.
I could never understand why other kids wanted to truant - my education here gave me everything. It's the place where I really got to flourish.
I have eight brothers and sisters, so I'd like to have a few children.
My family is the most important thing to me.
There's one thing we all share: We eat to nurture ourselves, to feel stronger.
I feel, in 2015, when we see human beings and children dying to cross the ocean, trying to find safety, something more must be done to help them because refugees are just like me and you.
When I was 10 years old, I fled my homeland amid the bomb blasts of civil war in Sudan.
You could fancy what you'd like, but as a woman, my mother always raised us to believe in ourselves. I am very grateful that my mother brought me up that way.
