Augustah Allen

Who:

Augustah Allen -- @Augustah_ -- 6’0” -- from NYC.

Where:

I'm from Saint Paul, Minnesota, born and raised. My mom is Sierra Leonean and my dad is from Mississippi, so I grew up with a mix of cultures that shaped how I see the world. I've now lived in New York for four years.

Agencies:

Boom Models (Milan)

- Did you always want to be a model? Tell us about how you were discovered.

I've wanted to be a high-fashion model since I was eight. I'd put outfits together, ask my mom to take photos, and practice my runway walk while watching America's Next Top Model. I even attended scouting events growing up, but modeling felt out of reach for a while.

At sixteen, while working as a cashier at Marshalls, a modeling agent came through my register and asked if I'd ever considered modeling. That moment felt like fate. I started in Minnesota, earned my degree in Communication and Global Business, and after college pursued modeling full-time in New York and Milan.

The journey has included rejection, doubts, and a lot of waiting. But modeling taught me that rejection and doubt don't always mean stop. Sometimes they mean keep becoming the person who's ready when the right opportunity arrives.

I've kept betting on myself, and I'm lucky to have family and friends who have believed in me through every season.

- What are your favorite forms of self care and why?

Writing is my biggest form of self-care. I started my blog, Unfiltered with Augustah, in 2024 as a place to process mental health, different seasons of my life, and my career. Sometimes I don't understand how I feel until I sit down and write it.

I also love Reformer Pilates, hair and beauty routines, creating, spending time with friends, traveling, and slow days where I can just be present.

For me, self-care is about creating space to reconnect with myself before I go back out into the world to build.

- What other passions do you have aside from modeling?

Outside of modeling, I'm passionate about marketing, PR, branding, fashion, writing, styling, creative direction, and content creation. I love turning everyday experiences into something visual, editorial, or meaningful.

That's how Unfiltered with Augustah evolved from a blog into a vlog — almost like a mini reality series documenting fashion, beauty, becoming, and the moments in between. I wanted people to see the process, the day-to-day moments, and not just the pretty pictures on Instagram.

Building outside of modeling changed how I see my career.

I can still want an agency to believe in me while believing in myself enough to keep moving.

I can go to a casting and still create my own shoot.

I can wait for a campaign decision and still publish something of my own.

Modeling is at the center of my career, but I don't have to shrink everything else I'm passionate about to fit inside one title.

I'm building a world where all of those parts make sense together.