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Dylan Munashe Dzenga

Youth Interactive Writer

The modelling career can be very demanding if some people do not understand the concept and idea.

Although society is evolving and making adjustments to certain stereotypes, young women still face different problems in their careers.

Twenty-two year-old Rhoda Ruhukwa is not one to quit despite the problems, instead, she motivates herself as well as others like her with the challenges she has witnessed in her time as a model.

“I have always loved to be an inspiration and I saw modelling as an opportunity for me to be heard and to be seen. 

“I believe we’ve all got a story to tell which can inspire someone and I saw modelling as the right opportunity that I can use to tell my story and inspire many youthful lives” said Rhoda.

 The young model had to defer from university in 2019 after being diagnosed with epilepsy. 

From then, she decided not to just sit back but get into the world and represent and motivate different groups of people with different issues.

“Honestly, I was devastated. It felt like it was the end of the world and took me a while to accept reality and pick myself up,” Rhoda said. 

The model was crowned Miss Gweru 2021 after contesting against 11 other young ladies. 

Modelling comes with big expenses that models sometimes have to pay for themselves, which is one of the few challenges the people in the career face. 

The career path also comes with a lot of rebuttals from society. 

“People have a wrong perspective about modelling and at first people discouraged me, but after seeing that this was actually a good career and it’s nothing like what people think, people now support me and the people from my society are so proud of me and the things I’ve achieved so far,” she explained. 

For the many youths in Zimbabwe, Rhoda has shown courage and confidence, telling people to be able to stand up for themselves as they should not be intimidated because of how they look or their medical conditions.

“I would want to advise people like me out there to follow their dreams, work very hard in order for those dreams to become a reality, don’t just dream about it, you have the potential to make it happen. 

“I would like to warn them to never use shortcuts, don’t be too hungry for success, you’ll end up doing things that aren’t good. If you work hard, you’ll achieve your dreams. It might take longer than expected, but if your time comes, no one will stop it from happening and above all, put God first.

“Modelling is a good career, personally it has taught me how to carry myself gracefully with confidence .It has taught me how to accept everyone as they are, therefore I say this to anyone who is passionate about modelling ,please go for it,” Rhoda explained.