Behind the scenes:
Onweagba, whose first name in
her native Igbo language means "God's work," was born in the Nigerian commercial capital of Lagos.
Her father was a civil servant, and
her mother was a nurse.
She and
her siblings (two brothers and a sister) lived in Ayilara Street, Ojuelegba, in Surulere, a low-income area of the sprawling metropolis.
She spent her high school years as a good student, and enjoyed playing tennis and ping pong.To make
her story one of rags to riches, it is often reported that to make ends meet,
she sometimes sold bread on the streets of the city.
She was urged by a family friend to enter into the
M-Net Face of Africa preliminary screening at the M-Net office in Victoria Island, Lagos which
she scaled through. The agency immediately groomed
her to be one of Nigeria's entrants for a model competition, the
M-Net Face of Africa (now called the Nokia Face of Africa). This despite the fact that, growing up,
she had maintained a relative ignorance towards fashion and modeling. With the support of
her family and friends,
she decided to compete in the inaugural edition of the Face of Africa in 1998. This was the first-ever continent-wide model competition, as opposed to a mere beauty pageant, and was organized by the South African subscription television channel M-Net in collaboration with Elite Model Management. With
her slim, tall (6 ft 1 in) figure, and
her natural beauty,
she captivated the judges, and
she handily won the competition.
She was just seventeen years old. Elite Model Management awarded
Onweagba a three-year modeling contract, and a whirlwind life as a highly-sought-after fashion model began.
Moving to New York City, where
she is currently still living,
she began to make an impact.
Onweagba graced the covers of Italian Vogue, i-D,
ELLE, Untold, and Surface, and
she also was featured in Nylon, Marie Claire, Allure, and other national editions of Vogue around the world.
Keep shining sister!!
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