Model Anais grew up in Paris (“Paris, Paris, always Paris”), although her dad’s family hails from Cuba, a “beautiful” place that she’s visited once before. The true beauty currently lives with her grandma, who she absolutely adores.
“She’s really crazy—she’s crazy, but really nice. She always wants me to eat, always, always, always, and she is always dressed like a Parisian woman; very chic,” Anais explains. “She’s always talking, [and the best thing she’s ever told me is] don’t trust people! When she doesn’t like someone I introduce her to she tells me, and she is always right! She married my grandfather really young, then divorced him after having three children. After that she lived like an independent woman—she was by herself but was happy that way.”
Her grandma advises her to do what she wants, but not to be dependant on a man. Yes!
Despite conceding that it’s cool, modelling was never something she really wanted to pursue, and instead has dreams of being an artistic director. She has “a lot of projects” in mind, and is currently interested in talking about self-love and self-confidence.
She’d take Instagram over Netflix any day of the week, mainly ‘cause she only watches Anime. Her current favourite show is Hunter X Hunter, and she even has her own tattoo of the Chief of the gang of spiders’ tattoo. Cool! To her, the perfect date is “just walking in London or Paris at night, with no one in the street and just a little rain and des écouteurs, headphones, listening to music.” For someone visiting Paris for the first time, she’d take them to Princess Crepe and her cousin’s cafe, Le Café Curieux, ‘cause the coffee is so good! In the event she’s not around to take you, it’s located next to Place d'Italie.
She’s excited to grow up, not only so she can work on her own projects, but also so she can gain the maturity and independence that comes with it. In the shorter term, she’s excited to work on her photography project—in tandem with her good friend—which documents things like stretch marks and other “imperfect” characteristics of the human body.
“I think that we need to love our imperfections, it’s normal and not really an imperfection,” she explains. “We need to love ourselves. And also learn to not judge people, because when you judge people about the physical, you judge yourself too.”
She is learning to love herself by taking pictures of her body and face when she feels down, talking with her friends, and repeating to herself everyday that she needs to know she is beautiful, and that everyone else is beautiful, too. She is the happiest when she’s with her friends, who she loves because they’re “nice and really funny” and feel like her family, and would like to be remembered herself as a “really nice person who helped people to be happy.”
To the cutest human ever, ‘cool’ is that person who talks with everyone—they are happy, smiling and funny. Sounds like someone we know *cough* Anais *cough.
Words: Maddy Woon Images & Fashion: Chloe Hill
Anais is represented by MP PARIS
Shot on location at Palais-Royal in Paris
