"They were all like, 'sure, you're pretty.' " "My friends were all surprised," she said. Her family and friends, including the one who originally had the idea to enter the contest, were shocked. So I entered the contest, too, and then I won." "The prize was a computer, and I needed a computer for school. "I was studying to be a teacher in China and my friend was entering a modeling contest," she said. She was in high school when, on a whim, she submitted photos for a modeling contest, hoping to win the top prize of a laptop computer. The newest addition to the Victoria's Secret family was born in Yongzhou in China's Hunan province in 1988, the daughter of an interior designer dad and a stay-at-home mom. She looked absolutely stunning in our fashion show," said the show's executive producer, Monica Mitro.Īt 5-foot-10, Wen said she towered over her classmates in China. She has a strong and energetic presence on the runway. Victoria's Secret plucked Wen, 21, out of a regular model casting call. I didn't think an Asian girl would get this job." She seemed only slightly overwhelmed: clad in a pink robe, one technician assigned to her fingernails, another to her toenails and another adding extensions to her already long black hair. "I was surprised when my agent told me," Wen said hours before she was set to walk the runway. Wen, who will appear in the Victoria's Secret fashion show airing Tuesday on CBS, will be the first Victoria's Secret model of Asian descent to walk the catwalk, the company said. Little did she know it would lead her to the Victoria's Secret runway in New York. I want to push for more at the end of the day.(CNN) - Four years ago Liu Wen entered a modeling contest in China to win a computer to use for school. “I know some people don’t feel seen because we are half white, and I think we have to acknowledge that and our privilege in that. “I would love to see more full Asian representation,” she says. “I’m trying to recognize my own privilege of being half-white in the Asian space.” She points out that the majority of Asian plus size models are at least half white. Being the first Asian plus model on Sports Illustrated or Vogue and getting comments of, she’s half-white, though,” Yumi says. “I spent so much of my life ignoring my Asian side and not feeling white enough, and then when I finally want to accept my Asian side, I don’t feel Asian enough. Yet the triumphs have come with complications. “I think that’s what these girls are doing-they’re putting their ideas into action, and once their action is met with execution, then they’ll be represented.” “The work ethic is the driving force for all of us to be able to get our voices heard,” says Steve. “I didn’t have anyone that looked like me growing up, so now I’m fulfilling that for myself and for others who look like me,” Yumi says, to which Natalie heartily agrees. “It’s like, we’re on the same team.” Beyond blood, the sisters are bonded by their mission to champion body inclusivity and Asian-American representation in media. “But I’m so lucky to have seen sisters like Gigi and Bella, Dakota and Elle, who lift each other up even though they’re in the same industry,” says Natalie. Like many other famous sisters, Yumi and Natalie have found themselves climbing the ranks of the fashion world in near tandem, which has felt challenging at times given the comparative lack of opportunities for plus size and Asian models. Agreeing, Natalie adds, “you almost have flashbacks to growing up.” They say a bit of distance has helped them grow closer - they tried living together for a bit in LA, but, “It was not happening. Natalie has a very dry sense of humor, cracking self-deprecating jokes with a practiced poker face that leaves her sister in stitches. “I did metal for a little bit, now I’m doing rock music,” Natalie says later, speaking with the cool, confident manner that helped her become the first plus size model to walk the runway for Anna Sui when she was only 16 years old. Shrugging off her coat, she reveals a tattoo of the word Awareness on her inner right elbow, while a red snake slithers across her left forearm. Natalie, 21, is wearing a solid red tank top and a necklace with a dragon clutching a pearl in its mouth, her hair loosely braided to the side. A few minutes later, her younger sister and fellow model-musician Natalie Nootenboom arrives, having flown in from their family home near Las Vegas for the occasion.
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