Nigerian model Adetutu Alabi gained recognition after she started a campaign to get Fenty Boss, Rihanna to sign her up as a model.
The model who eventually got followed by Rihanna has said that her tribal marks, a proud Yoruba mark of beauty, was a stumbling block to her pursuing a university education.
According to The Punch, the model who kicked off this career path last year said that her bullying started in primary school and made her a recluse.
“I was supposed to study law but I decided not to take the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination at all because I was scared of being bullied in the university. I believed that if I attended university, I might end up killing myself.”
“Later, I had to ask my parents why they gave me these tribal marks and they told me it was because of our culture and to showcase my beauty.”
Nigerian model Adetutu Alabi. Photo: Twitter
“I didn’t feature in any of my primary school pictures because of my tribal marks and even though I had friends, I was always like a fifth wheel in the group. An embarrassing day for me was when a client told me to always conceal my tribal marks anytime I came to work with her. She eventually told me that she couldn’t work with me.”
She also said that she was termed ugly and her baby daddy eventually left her because he could not stand walking with her in public.
She told the paper,
“One of the reasons the father of my child absconded was because of my tribal marks. He could not be with me in public and he only made us meet at night… I felt I was the ugliest girl in the world. I got fed up with relationships because men didn’t always want to go out with me during the day; they would prefer to be with me at night”
