Model Aaron Rose Philip [IG] graced the pages of Vogue Poland’s June 2022 issue, styled by Carolina Orrico in images by Stanislaw Boniecki [IG]./ Hair by Jerome Cultrera; makeup by Roy Liu

I honestly don’t know how AOC missed Aaron Rose Philip, but we did. No excuses and my apologies. ‘What a marvelous human being’ are the only words that come to mind to describe this Antiguan-American model, now 21. In 2018, she became the first black, transgender, and physically disabled model to be represented by a major modeling agency.

Vogue interviewed Philip last November in a series called ‘How I Got Here’. Her comments are a life lesson in how to envision success by creating optimal conditions for it to happen.

I started modeling when I was around sixteen or seventeen, after looking at fashion and magazines and never seeing anyone who looked like me. I’d look at all the shows and it was surprising to see just how many people really don't think that disabled people also like to get dressed and feel good. Because how could anyone think that? I decided, “I'm going to do this work because, why not?” So, you know, my work has always held that significance where I feel like everything that I do speaks to something larger than myself. I am a talented model who has a disability, who also happens to be a black trans woman. I want to have the same level of success and opportunities that my peers have. I went from wanting to be a model to becoming a model by taking a real shot in the dark with it all, and trusting in myself to take a very big risk socially, mentally, physically, and style-wise while pursuing my career. What I did was create a goal of what I saw in my mind and what I wanted my modeling career to look like, and then mapped out all of the steps I thought it would take to get to where I wanted to go. So I took each step and I haven’t stopped running since.