Althea Laing – Jamaica’s First Home Grown Super Model still charting her course!
If you are fortunate to be in a room with Althea Laing but not aware of who she is, we assure you that before you left you would know all you needed to know. Standing rock-solid, slim and svelte, and of course effortlessly chic, she could pass easily for a woman a decade younger than she really is. At 62 Althea will tell you that she is living her best life having experienced more than her fair share of challenges. She did not allow them to define her; however, instead, through God, they strengthened her. She will laughingly tell you that she looks nothing like what she has gone through and you best believe that is true. In 1985, Althea Laing defied, at the time, the industry standard of what a model should look like. Very young with flowing hair and a complexion of the lighter hue; she was the exact opposite – older than the industry standard, chocolate skin which she describes as her fabulous melanin coming through, and very distinct features along with woolly hair that spoke of her African heritage.
Having just gained her freedom from an abusive husband, she got a chance at a new life and she took it like a drowning woman. She won the title of Jamaica’s fashion model and went on to blaze trails in the industry gracing the covers of international magazines by sheer initiative, persistence, and presence. At age 29 with the odds of being successful in the fashion industry against her, she proved the naysayers wrong and that my friends sum up Althea. One who believed fiercely in herself and did not allow the world to dictate how she lived.
Today, having contributed to the educational landscape as a renowned teacher of the English Language and Literature she is formally retired from the education system which she entered subsequent to her modelling career. She now contributes to the lives of many through The Althea Laing Image Consultancy which offers consultancy in the areas of personal development & grooming, communication, and customer service. She is taking on new roles as she boldly continues to chart her own course intent on winning to the very end of her life.
Early days
“I grew up in the sleepiest town on the island – Black River, the first town to get electricity in Jamaica”, she says proudly and would further add that Black River had many firsts. Her parents were both teachers at the Black River Primary School. She grew up in a strict environment but was greatly loved by her parents. She always knew she was different from her siblings because of the creative energy that was just innately a part of her. She did not think her family on a whole understood her purpose or her nuances. She was different and it was hard and she constantly felt the need to prove herself.
Althea was artistic, as a child she was always in some kind of contest (which of course she won) or on stage otherwise, maybe at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) where she would be a constant participant. She was an actress who played leading roles in Jamaica Playhouse “One time, Long Time” alongside Buddy Pouyatt, as the juvenile lead. Then in 1991, she played a cameo role in Julie Dash’s “Daughter of the Dust”, some of which her father was directly involved in. She admitted that quite possibly the artsy side of her came from him. She was always into fashion as she fondly remembers playing “dress up” in gloves and hats each Easter at the Flower Show in St. Elizabeth. Althea recalls having a very good childhood, devoid of the drama that sometimes accompanies many households in Jamaica. Her parents were actively involved in her and her siblings’ lives. They sacrificed to ensure that none of their children were without and that they experienced a good life including a good education.
Stardom with Essence Magazine
I won the Miss Jamaica Fashion Model competition and was told I would never make it internationally because I was too old. I remember an acquaintance called and told me that Essence Magazine was at a popular hotel on the north coast (Jamaican resort) and without hesitating, I got dressed and called my friend who was the resident manager at the named hotel. I told him I was on my way having explained everything to him. My motivation and thought process was if I looked the way they say I did then they (Essence team) would see me.
So I went and of course, they saw me and enquired who I was and that is how it all started. Using their interest in me as a cue I enquired if it was okay to observe what they were doing in order to get a better understanding of the international modeling platform and they opened themselves to me. I made sure they did not forget me by keeping in touch and then an opportunity opened a couple of months later. They wanted a “chocolate” model for their cover and I thought that was me. I got on a flight and went to New York. We did a test shoot, it came out fabulously, it was a go and the rest is history.
TBWM: You pretty much single-handedly created the opportunity for yourself and launched us (Jamaica) on the map in the fashion world then?
Althea: Yes, it was my initiative. I believe that PULSE (local agency Althea was signed to at the time) was new to the market and never understood my capabilities to charter new territory. I am happy I was able to contribute significantly to how the world would see Black women especially Jamaican women as a fashion force. Unfortunately even today I have not received any National recognition for contributing to making Jamaica more visible in this landscape as a homegrown model. I think that cover September 1985 was one of the most circulated & purchased covers in the history of Essence Magazine due in part to many Jamaicans. I think every Jamaican who could have purchased a copy of that magazine, did. This highlighted our unity as a people and celebration of individual Jamaican success. It also somewhat gives credence to the saying that we are “little but tallawah”, that when we come together we can make an impact. I am grateful to Essence Magazine however because they helped me in many ways. They nurtured me and taught me the ins and outs of surviving and being successful in the fashion industry. I also got the opportunity to do another cover at age 35.
On a personal note, even though I had very loving and supportive parents and family they could not silence the fact that I was the target of many insulting words from my peers. I was called names such as Mawga (description for being overly slim in stature), black, big lips, ugly and more. For me it was triumphant when I stood in Manhattan and saw myself on the newsstands, I just bawled, overwhelmed by God’s goodness. Out of the adversities that I withstood, then losing a husband and all the drama associated, with being the target for unkind individuals God turned things to my favour. And I thank myself too because through it all – the negativity – I stood strong, held my head high, and fiercely believed in myself and who I knew I was. I used the negativity to fuel my perseverance and turned it all into my positive.
TBWM: How did you use the negativity and chart your own course?
Althea: As a little girl growing up and going to an all-girls boarding school, the other girls did not readily embrace how I looked, and even though I was confident it was hard and it made me aggressive and defensive especially in my teen years. What I managed to do overtime was to convert my aggression into assertion and I decided I would take control of my own life. Even in my marriage amidst everything that was happening, the abuse, the infidelity, him telling me that I did not look good, and just doing things that affected my health, etc. I managed to not allow it all to get to me. I am not sure how I did it but I did. I remember I had an Essence Magazine in my house with a picture of Grace Jones in it. I remember cutting out that picture and replacing it with an 8×10 picture of my own and told him – in no uncertain terms that I was going to be on the cover of Essence magazine. He died April 1st, 1985 and the September of the same year after winning the local competition I was on the cover of Essence. I believe when I closed out the negatives and truly began to accept who I was I evolved.
TBWM: Growing up you seem to have been a go-getter and then you got married and became someone else. How did that happen? What happens to us as women when we get involved with abusive men that cause us to become someone else far removed from who we are?
Althea: When I met him I got into a “love” situation that eventually became a mirage to me.
TBWM: Are you saying that love, in general, is a mirage, or are you referring to your situation?
Althea: Girl, I call it a mirage period; I am at a stage where if I have a partner he absolutely must be my close friend. I should be able to shed all of me and be in that person’s space and he accepts me for who I am but this love thing where you are going to do things together and then what really happens. I believe most times is that you begin to lose yourself and then you decide that you are taking “you” back and that is where the problem begins. If I could relive my life, I would not have gotten married…
TBWM: To him…
Althea: Period, as I look around I see too much of the same thing. If the abuse is absent, then infidelity is present. I see what commitment means and when the wife is committed that in itself is used against her. I have seen it too many times.
TBWM: (Laughing) The right person will come along and you will not know what hit you…what do you consider to be success and what one key ingredient do you attribute to your success?
Althea: What society sees as success, I do not see as success. Success is not
driving the name-brand car, living in a certain community, keeping up with the Joneses, or traveling all over the world. My success is derived from growing my grandchildren and seeing them become well-balanced adults giving back to society. Having raised other people’s children and seeing them grow up and do well is my success. Success is also what I have been able to do in the fashion world, opening doors for all these aspiring young women who will become international models one day. Success is my quality of life, my friendships, my will to survive.
TBWM: Do you think women support each other?
Althea: In Jamaica? No, I don’t think so. Mind you I have women around me that support me but, generally, no, I do not think so. I think that they are their greatest enemies. I have been fortunate to have had good experiences, but we do not celebrate each other as women.
TBWM: Earlier we touched on the fact that you were in an abusive marriage, tell us a little about it and how faith and God helped in you having the strength to get out of that situation?
Althea: I was married for 6 years and then everything went haywire. I was 26 at the time, my husband was very controlling, and I was committed to my marriage and wanted it to work. I had also grown and matured but there are just external forces that were set on breaking up my marriage. Unfortunately for me it was someone who I was close to and also married that caused my marital problems, the trauma, pain, and hurt along with the part that my husband played of course. The beauty about the whole thing however was that I am glad that it happened because sometimes things happen to us that we deem as the worst when it is actually the best. Had it not happened I would not have been able to draw on my strengths and my beliefs and move forward to achieve the things I had always wanted to achieve. Jamaican men are very domineering and when they find out that they cannot dominate then a challenge is presented. Throughout it all, I found the strength through God, – because I could not have done it without him – to reach out to his children that I was unaware of during the marriage. We have a close relationship, his children and I, and they have added meaning to my life and that is important.
Here is where faith played a part –
when I left I ended up in Negril there is something in my mother’s house that says “wherever you see the footprints in the sand that is where the Lord was carrying you” So I ended up in Negril and I remember sitting on the sand and a gentleman came up to me and we began talking. I told him of what was taking place, I must have needed to vent, and needless to say, he listened with all my crying and everything. When I was through he told me to go back to Kingston and that he would create a position for me at the hotel where he worked. He was the general manager of the hotel and I became the entertainment manager and everything was prepared for me as he promised. An apartment with food in my refrigerator and it was a glorious time for me and I got a chance to experience one of the many times God would work in my life.
I have had many challenges in my life some of which were treated with derision, but I believe everything that happens in our lives is the path that the Lord has placed us on to mould us for the better He has in store for us. A lot of us do not understand that when we are going through situations God has better for us and it may take longer. I have also been through church hurt where people are just unkind, you are not treated in a welcoming and inclusive manner and they treat you with scant regard not knowing that you are there trying to search, find and lock into the power of the Almighty. As a result, I have stepped back from the whole thing of organised church and I stay home, do my thing. I listen to TD Jakes and just live in the way the Lord would want me to – reaching out to people and doing things for persons. I am a giver and a doer and sometimes I am left with nothing but that is just me.
On Forgiveness… read more of Althea’s story here
