MODELING
& HOW SLESHA STARTED There is a nonprofit called Asha for Education, and when I was in high school, they were doing talent and fashion shows throughout the country. They would put on a show, for example, in Kansas City, where I grew up, and there would be a bunch of local performances and designers showcasing their work. My dance group, Seva Dance (the word Seva means giving back), was asked to perform at the Asha for Education talent show. After I performed and came off backstage, an agent from a modeling agency that was running the fashion show that day handed me a packet with a contract in it. As I walked out to the lobby, there was a photographer waiting there, and he asked if he could pull me into projects he had coming up. That photographer ended up helping me build my initial portfolio and introducing me to the agency that I ultimately signed with first.
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU WERE GOING TO BE A MODEL? No. I have always wanted to be a doctor since I was a small kid. It's all I ever wanted. I went to med school starting at 18, and I got my white coat. But the modeling industry is something that has always pulled me in. I've always been asked to do opportunities, and I don't think it's because of anything other than destiny. I think that it was written in the stars. I think that even though I was a shy, ugly kid growing up, I was destined for this. A lot of my cousins are models as well, so it is something that runs in my family a little bit. But at every point when I tried to turn away from it, something always pulled me back. There was one point in my life where I wanted to kind of test it out a little bit. So, before I started my master’s program at Johns Hopkins for Health Administration, I had a summer gap between when I graduated with my bachelor's degree and I decided to go to an international modeling competition.
