Beauty beats hard life to become international model

INTERNATIONAL model Stacyann Anderson was sent to live with strangers at age five after her mother claimed she could no longer bear an abusive relationship with her spouse.

According to Anderson, at that time she started to live with a well-loved and respected woman and her family in Gregory Park, St Catherine.

To this day, Anderson praises the woman for the love, quality care and compassion she poured out when she was alive.

Anderson shared that things started going downhill for her when the woman passed away from natural causes.

“Growing up was really tough, especially because I wasn’t raised with my biological family. My mother sent me to live with a lady, who was such a lovely lady, but she died when I was 14 years old. She was 97 years old. After the lady died, strangers took over. I became hungry and desperate. I was like Cinderella. As a little girl I had to clean and do things that weren’t nice. I also remember a lady from the house who sent me for some water. When I brought it to her, she threw it in my face,” she recalled.

According to Anderson, she didn’t start going to school until she was about 12, and had trouble enrolling in high school because she had no birth certificate.

“I had to go to Gregory Park All-Age School and stand in line for free lunch, bulla and milk. I had to drink piped water. My school bag and shoes were substandard. At one point my shoes had a hole in it. I remember graduating from Gregory Park and I had to collect my certificate on my own. Whenever there were meetings at school, nobody was there to represent me. It was me alone in the fight. When I was at school I did unnecessary things because I didn’t have proper guidance and so I did silly things for attention.

“After leaving Gregory Park and I was ready to start high school, that was another challenge because I didn’t have a birth certificate. I had to go to the Young Women’s Christian’s Association (YWCA) until I was about 17,” she said.

After leaving YWCA, Anderson said she just knew that God would turn her life around.

Saint International hosted a model search at the Portmore Mall one day and she shared that she was the last talent to be discovered. From there she signed to Saint and her life began to get better at around age 20.

“I remember going to a Saint International fashion show in Montego Bay. I met a man called Clifton ‘Specialist’ Dillon. I remember praying and asking God to send me a good Samaritan, not to sleep with me, but who could help me through my struggles. Dillon was that guy. He did so much for me in a short space of time. He was the one who pulled some strings at Victoria Jubilee Hospital for me to get my birth certificate. After getting my birth certificate, I was the only model in a batch that went to the US Embassy who got a 10-year visa.

“I am a strong believer in God. God has been amazing to me. I held on to faith the whole time. I prayed, fasted and trusted that one day better would come. When I went overseas I signed with Elite Model Management in New York. I modelled for some amazing designers like Carven, Jill Stuart, Beyoncé and Macy’s. I left Elite and went to Muse Model Agency and stayed with them for a year. From there I started doing freelancing. I thank Deiwght Peters for pulling some strings for me. He is a good person,” she said of the Saint boss.

For people who grew up, and are growing up in similarly tough circumstances, Anderson advised them to trust God and pray.

“Still be kind no matter how people treat you. To parents, I would say think twice about leaving your children with other people because you can create trauma in their lives. Now I am a mother of two, I stick around because the things that happened to me, I don’t want them to happen to them,” Anderson said.

She added: “When my mom left me at age five, she came back to look for me at age seven. I always loved my mom. She left and came back again when I was 19. When she came back, I could not recognise her. She got really slim because of cancer. She hugged me and told me she was sick. Before she died, she was living in Rollington Town and I would go and look for her and make sure she was alright. She was admitted Kingston Public Hospital for some time and then they moved her to a cancer care home in Montego Bay. She stayed there approximately one month. Before she died she told me I was a good person and that God would bless me. She died the same day she said that.”