Top model Paloma Elsesser would love to be a poet, but there is the reality that she likes nice things. The next best lifestyle is to enjoy her life as a top model — which seems increasingly secure for the London-born daughter of an African-American mother and Chilean-Swiss father.

Elsesser grew up in Los Angeles, attending private school, before moving to New York and The New School to pursue psychology and literature. For money, Paloma waitressed at Jamaican restaurant Miss Lily’s.

Now a Brooklyn real-estate owner, Paloma, part of the IMG family, explains “. . . I’m not Malala. I’m just a [5.7” tall] model who’s a size 12” .

The stunner covers the October 2022 issue of WSJ Magazine, lensed by Angelo Pennetta [IG] and styled by Julia Sarr-Jamois wearing faux fur from Balenciaga, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Michael Kors and Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello. Other brands in the fashion story include Dior, Hermès, Polo Ralph Lauren and more.

Lane Florsheim shares the interview: Model Paloma Elsesser on Turning 30 and “Moguling the F—-Out.” Check out all the product credits on AOC’s complimentary link.

A Big Breakup and Waiting for Motherhood

Paloma turned 30 this year and went through a major breakup, thrusting her into the dating life for the first time in years. “It felt like, I’m alone here, and I wasn’t going to die from it,” she says of the period. [She has a boyfriend now.]

AOC hugs Paloma for sharing that an abortion was also part of this major milestone year for her. “I feel like we need to be more honest [about these experiences],” she says. “I want babies, I just didn’t want one then and with that person. Knowing how…afraid and alone I felt in that process, what must a person going through it completely alone with no finances and choices feel? It’s beyond horrifying.”

Like so many models, actors and influencers, Paloma Elsesser is also trying to knit together a mogul-making strategy. That’s just great, but Paloma — will you PLEASE step out and put sustainability front and center in your strategy. A girl can only ask, but I am begging you to break this status-quo, models’ business strategy on steroids in America, one that doesn’t give a Mississippi god damn about the environment.

What would Malala do, Paloma? And hey, she’s got her own series and documentary-making gig on Apple. Even as a married woman, Malala is Apple CEO Tim Cook’s main guest at important dinners, because Apple is a big backer of her building global girls school initiative. You love Malala, Paloma. We could use another one, this time one who grew up in LA. ~ Anne