Page 32 - Powerlist 2020

Profiles

NEW Adwoa Aboah
2020
Supermodel, Activist
and Founder, Gurls Talk

When she appeared as the cover star of Edward Enninful’s
very first issue of British Vogue, fashion model and activist
Adwoa Aboah marked a sea change for the title, which had
been criticised for its lack of diversity.
In September 2019, she featured on the cover of Meghan
Duchess of Sussex’s guest edition of the same magazine,
alongside 14 other powerful and inspirational women,
from boxer Ramla Ali to New Zealand Prime Minister
Jacinda Ardern.
In 2017, Adwoa was voted both the British Fashion
Council’s Model of the Year and British GQ’s Woman of the
Year. To cap it all, Barbie’s 60th anniversary ‘Sheroes’ role
model range, launched in 2019, includes an Adwoa doll.
Modelling aside, she is equally well known for her
passionate activism. In 2014, she set up Gurls Talk, an open
online platform for judgement-free discussion of mental
health, body image and sexuality.
Adwoa has battled depression, self-esteem issues and
drug abuse herself. “I got sober in 2014, and through my
recovery, it was kind of this realisation that I had quite a lot
of responsibility to give back because I had been helped by
all sorts of women throughout my journey,” she explains.
“And there were very clear tools I had been given along
the way, about opening up, sharing stories, giving back,
and being honest. There was this new-found realisation
that I’d never been taught any of these things at school.”
Adwoa has spoken publicly about her own attempted
suicide, and has appeared in a video campaign promoted
by Heads Together, the mental health charity spearheaded
& Design
by Kate Middleton and Prince William.
Born into nobility through her mother, Camilla Lowther,
Adwoa, whose father hails from Ghana, was educated at
Millfield School. She has a degree in Modern Drama
and appeared in the 2017 Hollywood adaptation of the
Japanese manga movie Ghost in the Shell.

Arts, Fashion

32 Powerlist 2020