Can you feel my excitement? Yeah! I am super stoked about this. My heart is so full and happy. You see, I always want you to know that the only person stopping you is you. These exclusive interview updates are for you because I want you to know there is beauty in pursuing your dreams fearlessly. Celai left me inspired and I know you will be as well after reading or listening to this interview. If this is your first time here, you are very much welcome. Check out other interviews HERE and don’t forget to subscribe for more exclusive interview updates, beauty nuggets and so much more! Okay! Let’s get straight to the interview. As usual there is always an attached audio file of the interview at the end of the transcribed version just in case you prefer listening to reading the interview. You can always download to listen later. So who is Celai West? Here is a biography of her.

Meet Celai West; The Youngest and Most Confident Multi-talented Runway Model You'll Ever See! Click To Tweet

 

Short Biography Of Celai West

Celai West is a quirky ten-year-old STEM girl who is making waves in the fashion, runway, vlogging and acting industry, all while proving you can never be too cool for school. She began print modelling when she was five, doing runway shows when she was six, started acting and became the CEO of her own t-shirt line; The Chattychick at seven, walked in New York Fashion Week for the first time at eight, had her first viral video at nine and co-authoring her first book at ten.

Celai has worked with major brands like Target, Walmart, Amazon, Gap, Disney and Allstate and was the leading lady in Willy Williams’ music video ‘The voodoo song’ that has been viewed over 18 million times! She also appeared in ‘I Am My Own Mother’ which was selected to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. She is looking forward to doing more acting and challenging herself on set.

Celai West has appeared on ten magazine covers, published inside several magazine issues and newspapers and many of her images as well as videos have been shared on social media in viral numbers. She currently has two viral runway videos that to date, have been viewed more than 17 million times collectively. She can regularly be seen walking the runway among an all adult line-up as well as her coaching runway techniques.

After several unpleasant experiences with stylists who were unknowledgeable on how to style her hair while on set, Celai and her mom teamed up to create their own hair tutorials. They expected to help show styling and hair care techniques for ethnic textured hair but were pleasantly surprised to find that their videos were a hit and over six have received viral numbers. She was recently welcomed to the production team of ‘The Industry Fashion Show’ (T.I.F.S) as their runway coordinator, making her the youngest show producer.

West looks forward to continuing to breaking barriers while working hard in the classroom proving that models are indeed smart.

Short biography of Celai West Click To Tweet

Wow! Did you just take a deep breathe? I just did too! I had to soak all that awesomeness in you know. Lol. Let’s do this!

Celai how are you doing?

I’m good!

I want to let you know I’m really happy to have you talk to my audience and online community. You are such an inspiration and the amazing thing is you are still a very young girl setting the pace and standard and of course, I am super proud of you and I know my audience is so proud of you.

Thank you!

You’re welcome. So, let’s move over to the questions that I have here straight away. I always go through my interviewee’s bio thoroughly before any interview because I want to have an in-depth knowledge of this cool person I’ll be chatting with and your bio is so motivating. According to your bio, you started doing all these amazing stuffs at the age of five. How has it been? Has it been overwhelming, challenging or a combination of these emotions?

Well, it’s been really good. It’s been fun. We just do one thing at a time so it’s not very stressful at all.

I’m really happy about that and I believe you have a wonderful support system to be pulling off all these amazing stuffs.

Thank you!

I love the fact you are multi-talented and I know your parents play a vital role in all these and I’m super proud of them. I watch your posts on Instagram and I see your mom being so supporting and it makes me so happy. So, I want to know, what does it take to get to where you are asides your support system?

It takes definitely a lot of work and I’ve gotten a lot of ‘No’s from people but it just made me stronger until I got a ‘yes’!

'I've gotten a lot of 'No's from people but it just made me stronger till i got a 'yes' - Celai West; Model, Actress, Author, Influencer and CEO. Click To Tweet

Wow! Nice! I love the confidence and fortitude. One thing I must commend is your influence in the natural hair community. I am a natural hair enthusiast and I love the way you inspire other girls to wear their crown so confidently. I must say thumbs up to that okay?

Thank you!

You’re welcome! You once mentioned that sometimes when you go for all these big runway shows; the hair stylists don’t normally like to handle your natural hair because they feel they do not know how to handle it. How do you cope with these kind of situations? Do you go with your personal stylist or mom to help you do this or you just wear your hair out like that randomly?

Usually, my mom styles my hair not really a hair designer but it’s only the makeup she doesn’t do. My mom asks what they want before styling but when it comes to acting or modelling, they have to style my hair. Sometimes the hair designers look at me crazy because they don’t know what to do and when they do it, it looks crazy and then they don’t want to have me back because they feel it looks crazy but then they want nice pictures.

I’m really happy about that. I love the way your mom supports you. I’ve heard some black models complain when they get to the shows and the stylist has no clue on how to handle their hair and it just becomes a huge problem. I love the way you do all these things regardless. It is inspiring. Thumbs up again!

Thank you!

I’m a little curious about this. There is always a breaking point. There is that particular thing that made you become popular or that made people realize how unique and special you are and the kind of influence you are putting out there. So, was it a viral video, a particular runway show or movie? What happened that made everybody know about this amazing young girl making big moves?

It would have to be my viral video because it got a lot of views and that was when I started getting more followers and a lot more people were supporting me and the second viral video was when I was in New York Fashion Week when I wore my hair shrunken because I wanted to show what my hair really looks like. That got me more supporters.

Nice! I’m really proud of you. Celai before we end the interview, I discovered your next birthday is on 28^th March, 2019. I wish you a great birthday in advance and your fans over here in Nigeria are wishing you a very huge happy birthday. We always want to make sure you are okay. Keep setting the pace and making us proud over there. We love you so much.

Thank you so much!

One more thing. I’d love to appreciate your mom. I noticed she is there with you right?

Yes!

Right! I’d love to talk to mummy!

(Celai’s Mom) Hello!

Yeah! Mummy we just want to say a very big thank you and we love the way you support Celai and I know there have probably been some challenges. We love the way you and Dad keep standing up for her. You both are doing an amazing job. Thank you so much.

Thank you. I appreciate everybody’s support. Thank you.

You’re welcome. Make sure you have a great day and I wish her good luck in the auditions she’s about going for.

(Celai and Mom) Thank you for having us.

Yipee! I had a swell time talking to Celai and I really appreciate the mom’s support all through the interview as she was always there to guide her though the questions.

You can listen to the audio file of the interview below. It is also downloadable in case you just want to download to listen later.

Do you want to connect with Celai? I got you! Click HERE to follow her on Instagram and keep up with the cool stuffs she does. Also click HERE to keep with any of her press releases, shop the beautiful eBook she co-authored titled ‘The Parents Guide To Kids Runway For Brown Girls’ and find out more about her. Do not forget to check out and shop her t-shirt line ‘The Chatty Chick’. Click HERE to do so.

 

 

If you love these interview updates, why not subscribe so you don’t miss a thing. Don’t forget to share as well and click to tweet. So until next time, shalom!