Thando Hopa

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What challenges did your parents face in raising you?

My parents had to educate themselves, they had to learn about the importance of sun screen, a sun hat, how to deal with my eyesight problems.
My father used to play ball with me, all he would do is throw it to try and measure my depth perception and my focus. My uncle was placed as my personal sun-screen bodyguard and made sure I put my sun screen on every 2 hours.


My mother, having the foresight that I'll have self-esteem problems bought me beautiful long-sleeved clothes and sun hats, making me look like the cutest little girl and people told me how pretty I looked.


As I grew older, my father had to fortify my self-confidence by telling me I was the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. It became more difficult for them to deal with my confidence levels the older I grew, but they were persistent in their efforts.


Furthermore my parents were told that I had no prospects of survival in a mainstream school. But mother was fierce in her faith, so I always went to a mainstream school and now I'm a prosecutor thanks to them.
They bought any visual aid that was within their means, they made sure I coped, until I had enough independence to do it on my own.


It’s Albinism Awareness Month, could the government or the country do more in raising awareness. Do you feel people know about this month?

Teachers need to be trained to have a level of understanding when it comes to the visual issues that a child with albinism has. They need to also dictate whatever it is they are writing on the board, for instance.


With respect to subjects that involve numeracy government needs to ensure that it provides schools equipment like monoculars and so forth, particularly for children who cannot afford it; everyone has a right to education and schools should ensure that they deal with the challenges its students might have to place them on an equal path as students who don't have those challenges.


Once you empower them as individuals then society will view them differently, they will view themselves differently, these processes are mechanisms for change.


There are efforts from radio, television, newspapers, pamphlets and social media to create awareness during this month, thus I do believe that a certain level of understanding of the condition throughout South Africa is beginning to take place.


Model and Lawyer…. how did that happen?

I became a prosecutor because firstly I felt suited for litigation, secondly it was a socially aware area of law, which is important to me.


A friend called me when he saw the post at the NPA advertised and the rest, as they say, is history. In the same year I became a prosecutor, Gert-Johan Coetzee stopped me at a mall and we began a beautiful journey in the world of fashion and media. We wanted to redefine beauty and show people that being different is something society should embrace not ridicule.


A message to all the girls and boys who have been told they can not.

Someone said to me, when your mindset is right the facts don't matter. In other words limitations can't define your will, but the converse is true.

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love the second and third photos in the first post. her story is inspiring.

 

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Vogue Portugal 2019












She is the first albino model to be on the cover of Vogue!

 

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Marie Claire August 2017





marklives.com/

 

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Glamour South Africa August 2018

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famousfix.com/
gq.co.za

 

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Forbes 2013



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Get It Magazine 2017



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"Thando Hopa makes it among BBC's 100 most influential women"

November 2018

The former prosecutor, model, poet, activist, aspiring actress and overall powerhouse is certainly a force to be reckoned with.
BBC has released its top 100 inspiring influential women from across 60 different countries between the ages of 15 to 94 based on academia, influence, social activism, politics and arts, and has described these women as "leaders, trailblazers and everyday heroes".

And SA's very own, Thando Hopa is among the women who are fighting to make this world a better place.

The 29 year old started out as a prosecutor and after four years of assisting the hands of justice decided to take a sabbatical.

Thando has made history as the first black South African featured in the prestigious Pirelli Calender, alongside international celebrities such as Naomi Campbell and Lupita Nyong'o, modelled for designers such as Gert Johan Coetzee and has recently been signed to American modeling agency, New York Models.

However, she says that her plans were never to be a model.

She decided to pursue the career it after she realised that this would be an opportunity to represent people with albinism on a greater scale.

"When I was a prosecutor and I was scouted by Gert-Johan Coetzee, I decided I would only do the shoot because I wanted to portray albinism in a positive light because there was a lot of stuff in the media that was continuously negative," she tells CapeTalk.

On her Twitter account she describes herself as someone who is striving for diversity in the media industry as a whole and she is definitely causing ripples as she makes hers and the voices of others heard with all of her achievements thus far.

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Meet the Model Fighting Misconceptions About Albinism


Model Thando Hopa is used to rising above life’s challenges. Born with albinism, Hopa has had to fight against traumatic misconceptions of her skin since childhood and the limits that others have ascribed to her. Through her accomplishments, the prosecutor turned model has more than proven that what makes her different stands as an asset in building a lucrative career. Just don’t attribute her success to good fortune – she’s been determined to make the impossible possible since she got scouted. Fresh off a historic Vogue cover we talked to the activist about her monumental milestones, the difference between diversity and inclusion, and the responsibility she has to move the narrative of albinism beyond stereotypes.

How long have you been modeling and how did you first get discovered?
I have been modeling for 7 years, however, for the first 4 years, I seldom worked as a model. I attained a bachelor of laws at the University of the Witwatersrand and then became a prosecutor and worked for the National Prosecuting Authority. The year I began working, I was scouted as a model at 23 years old. I was reluctant at first but after some convincing from my sister, it became important to create an alternative, positive narrative about being different. I juggled two careers for four years and in that time, I worked on projects that helped create social awareness and consciousness. Then, I took a sabbatical from the law in 2016 to explore my interest in the arts.

What are some of the defining career moments for you?
I think being on the 2018 Pirelli Calendar that was shot by Tim Walker was career-defining for me. The theme was Alice in Wonderland and it was the first time the story had been represented through people of color. The experience reminded me that the media influences how we see ourselves. When I collaborated with Tim Walker and Pirelli, the aim for me was to put forward narratives that move beyond stereotypes and rather place narratives that delve into the realm of possibilities and dreams. This is important to me because the coming generation should be able to experience a better world than we do, a world that is accepting and embracing of human diversity, a world that doesn’t impose limitations based on how someone looks. We never just carry ourselves on these platforms, we carry millions of people and with this privilege comes a responsibility to try and build stronger and more positive narratives to curb the negative ones that create social barriers. I was given the opportunity to write for the calendar and voice out my own interpretation and my own truths. This was one of my favorite projects.

How would you say the industry has changed for better or for worse in terms of inclusion?
I think the industry can get better in terms of inclusion. I think the industry focuses less on inclusion and more on diversity. Diversity does manage to achieve a symbolic distribution of images as it deals with differences of race, body shape, otherly-ableness, etc. Diversity is a separate inquiry from inclusion. Inclusion goes into more complex questions. How are models of color treated, how are they paid, how are they represented, do they have some control over their stories, are contracts drafted in a manner that aims to exploit, disempower and strip the more vulnerable party of their agency? All these factors deal with bargaining power and require institutions to relook at how they’re structurally and systematically being exclusionary or oppressive. Inclusion deals with confronting attitudinal, structural and systematic barriers and oppression in a manner that pursues equality. Diversity without inclusion results in tokenism and is a disingenuous display of equality.

“Diversity is a separate inquiry from inclusion. Inclusion goes into more complex questions. How are models of color treated, how are they paid, how are they represented, do they have some control over their stories and representation, are contracts drafted in a manner that aims to exploit, disempower and strip the more vulnerable party off their agency?”

As someone who is part of many marginalized groups, how has your experience been living and working in South Africa?
My experiences are varied, contextual and situational. At home, I was treated with warmth, love, and adoration. During my early development, society’s narratives about my body hadn’t really kicked in yet. I was not black, not rich or poor and I didn’t have albinism, I was just Thando. However, as I interacted with my community, I began to discover that we have loaded bodies. On my first day of school, my peers approached me with suspicion, hostility, and otherness. I learned through my body, that there is a behavioral defect in how we approach difference. That the color and shape of our bodies assign social consequences. I realized the impact of this when I worked in the media fraternity too. On a practical level, I’m short-sighted and this requires me to find creative methods on how to navigate my spaces. Being outside on a sunny day only feels pleasant for a short amount of time because I’m conscious of sun damage, which makes outside shoots quite challenging because my eyes are sensitive to light. In all this though, I find my own way of navigating life in my space and for the most part, cherish South African life – with all its complications.

What would you say are the biggest misconceptions about living with albinism?
There are many misconceptions but I will name a few I know I find to be prominent and a real problem:
That albinism only occurs amongst black people
Albinism is a race
Albinism is a disease
People with albinism are a curse or bring luck.
That the whole African continent has a violent reaction to people with albinism (certain countries and certain provinces are in a crisis when it comes to massive human rights violations of persons with albinism. However, the continent is as varied and as complex as any other, each context has its own dynamics)
That people with albinism have an other-worldly aesthetic
People with albinism automatically cannot thrive in mainstream schools or employment environments. (It’s a case by case inquiry, it’s not a homogeneous conclusion, I, for instance, went to mainstream schools my whole life).

Do you think that having albinism encouraged your role as an activist?
Definitely, my skin is loaded with societal misconceptions but it enveloped me in a uniqueness that helped me discover my own voice in a world that I struggled to understand and that struggled to understand me. It made me question power dynamics, it helped me understand intersectionality and it made me discover the complexity of identity and body politics. The experiences that I attracted because of my body, made me seek a template of equality and I started looking for ways to negotiate that equality and media became one of those platforms.

Tell us about your recent cover of Vogue Portugal – how was the barrier-breaking experience ultimately?
Initially, me being on a Vogue cover seemed too much of a far-fetched idea and my mind protected itself by not even imagining the possibility of it. A woman with albinism had not been represented on a Vogue cover and also, I live in South Africa which brings another inaccessibility to certain platforms. This was a lesson for me, that our uniqueness and authenticity are a form of currency and we can navigate any part of the world when we allow ourselves to be seen. To a point where even dreams we never knew we had become true. I have to admit that I felt a sense of progress because it always dawns on me how in many platforms that inform our popular culture, minority groups fall through the cracks when it comes to representation. So whenever there’s a breakthrough made by one single person, it might not break the barrier when it comes to our collective social mobility but it certainly does alleviate it a little.

“…our uniqueness and authenticity are a form of currency and we can navigate any part of the world when we allow ourselves to be seen. To a point where even dreams we never knew we had become true.”

Social media has been touted as an important tool for the current generation of new models, how do you make it work for you?
One of the interesting by-products of social media is that it allowed the democratization of beauty, it’s a form of media that is finding ways to ensure that the image of beauty is no longer monopolized. From me, the biggest asset social media has given me is the ability to have full control over my image, my story, and my overall representation. A lot of the times, I felt misunderstood, stereotyped or misrepresented by publications, however, social media opened up an avenue where my story was authored by me on my own terms. It also gave me an opportunity to write and package my thoughts in a way where I could share them with the world.

Do you have any major goals for your career in the future?
My major goal is to get better at building the resilience of living a purposeful life. My projects need to focus on representation that is inclusive, diversity and progressive narratives, I go through this analysis with every project. I’ve turned down brands that are big because I felt that their values are in conflict with mine, but I was equally lucky to work with brands who had values and projects that aligned with me. Film is still one of my most unexplored mediums and I certainly still aim to use that medium to portray humanizing stories that live outside of the stereotypes.

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