I'm Renee Simone. I am an American born and raised in New Jersey. I have been living in Korea for about three years now and I'm currently in the entertainment field as a model. Like many other people, Korea has kind of been on the radar if you've ever listened to K-pop like shiny moon on the moon. Yeah, boom. That's how I ended up here. There's no time like the present and this is what I've always wanted to do, I wasn't so as young. So why not just try? And from there I moved to Seoul and started freelancing to just see if there was a market for me. When you're in the States, you know everyone's very diverse. You see it every day. Korea is still very homogenous, although it's getting better. I didn't know whether I fit. Greatfully, I was able to find brands that wanted exactly that, always being able to want to grow in curious. I think you need to have that as a model because every shoot is different. The energy and the vibe that you bring to the shoot, 100% changes the room, changes the atmosphere. Even if you don't think you were the most experienced model, you being open to just being yourself and working with your body and being confident in your body and your moves, I think is the most important. As a model, you have to be cognizant of, okay, how does this line look? How does this side of my face look versus this side of my face? This side is my better side. The type of modeling I've been doing so far are with brands that accept the human body for how it is, you know, embracing your curves because I am curvy, believe it or not. Even Korean celebrities, right, want to have really pale, snow-like skin, sometimes on the scary side. A little color is not bad. The blood running through our veins is also colored just to let you know. Yeah, I'll just say that. If you have certain features that are really deemed beautiful here, then you have a bit more of demand. If you are a bit different, like I am, it really does depend. More foreigners are coming to Korea and more people are realizing that you can't say you're about diversity and want diversity but not work with diverse people. Having me as a model is a step in at least the diverse direction because I'm a bit darker than all the other models that they've had. More brands will realize that even the Korean population is not one size, one size does not fit all. Especially with foreigners, we have different body types in general. So just realizing that understanding that and accepting that acknowledging that I think we can get to a better place within fashion, within understanding culture. I have different hair texture and I understand if a stylist has never worked with my hair texture before. So usually, in majority of the time, I don't get any styling for my shades. I just make sure that I do my hair before I leave. Make sure that I have my moisturizer so my curls are a little bit refreshed. Shoots will ask you to bring your own foundation. Whereas for a Korean model, that's not the case. Bringing your own shade is kind of standard. I was introduced to my agency through a friend. If you're just starting out, I think it could be a little difficult to know who or what all agencies are. So I think it's one of those things where you have to play it by ear, unfortunately. But once you get here and start freelancing, I think it's easier to make those connections. Coming to Korea and being able to model here, it's been kind of a long, long dream for me. So being able to do that here, it's like God bless. I'm really grateful for the opportunity and I hope that we'll be informed and be able to do more interesting creative projects and red shop. That's my goal.