This girl is a winner. What can immediately be gleamed with a glance is her doe eyes and pouty lips. Aside from the pretty face, there is an uplifting quality to her. At 21, she's managed to navigate the pitfalls of the fashion industry with her idealistic nature fully intact. Electing to eschew the prototypical bad girl image, Malaika wears her faith on her sleeve right alongside her heart. Peruse her account and you'll see Bible passages and positive affirmations. She different in that she doesn't shy away from being a role model. She's grounded in her outlook.
Firth is putting together a charity to ensure that the street kids in her Mombasa neighbourhood, get fed and shod. "We try and feed around 60 to 70 kids. We get these huge pans, called sufuria, and make pilau - and get loads of drinks and shoes too. In modelling, it's all so self-centred - it's all about you. And I don't want it to be all about me all the time. So when I go back to Kenya it's all about the little kids. And that's what makes me happy as well."
Invariably, when talk turns to race, she has this to say:
"People are allowed to talk about my race," she says. "I like it. I guess I see myself as a kind of junior ambassador - I should pat myself on the head for that," she jokes. "After that Prada campaign when I was being compared to Naomi Campbell I was so happy. She's a legend. And if things aren't changing in fashion, they need to." The Prada campaign was shot by Steven Meisel, the reclusive photographer who also shot Vogue Italia's controversial "All Black" special in July 2008. "Obviously, I feel that fashion is totally racist," he has said. "The one thing that taking pictures allows you to do is occasionally make a larger statement."
Malaika herself things thinks things are changing, albeit slowly. "I see a lot of new black girls on the runway. When I began there was just Jourdan Dunn, Joan Smalls, but now there are more girls coming up. There should still be more diversity - it's like, don't just try, actually frickin' do it. We all have the same blood."
Everybody agrees that she's got it.
SOMETIMES a model comes along who just ticks all the boxes at the right time - and, right now, Malaika Firth is that girl.
Yup.
