#WE ARE ROYALS

It's through hardships where champions are birthed, so keep going. The harder the challenges the greater the victory. When facing issues, it can feel unbearable and never ending. Bully's only hurt people as they are experiencing their own struggles. Unfortunately, they simply don't know how to express themselves to the best capacity, which can brand a monumental impact on someone. Life's journey is not to break you but build you. Learning to love yourself is a journey many - if not all - must truly embark on.

Nini Amerlise, the epitome of a selfless, wholesome and strong woman everyone can learn something from. Before her time in the limelight, Nini's life wasn't always glamorous. She endures intense bullying and years wrestling low self-esteem and depression. Her weakest points growing up, she feels rejected and insecure. Intense victimization of bullying consumes her mind on a constant basis, blurring her focus in school which leads to poor grades and a misconstrued viewpoint of her identity. She doesn't have any prominent role models to look up to, and diversity in the industry is very sparse, leaving her full of questions.

Nini’s bullying experience starts at the age of four lasting to nineteen. Predominantly evident in school, and inside her household, the name calling is so profuse, that it leads to self-harm, shame, and struggles with suicide. Once she completes high school, she decides to use skin lightening creams to become a golden tone, wear green contacts, straighten her hair and install long weaves, she wants to hide her true identity. Arrogance, pride and selfishness develop in her later years as a defense mechanism. Consciously she doesn't know what she’s really doing to herself, subconsciously the toxicity damages how she perceives her own reflection.

Eventually, her negative lifestyle becomes very exhausting and she desires a change. Nini decides to do self-reflection, and develops a new desire to learn about God and seeks to find answers. A particular verse in the bible sticks with her in hard times. At first it isn't very clear, as she begins to meditate on the words deeper revelation begins to surface. God begins to speak to Nini’s heart showing her the totality of what he means. These living words begin to transform her life.

Through her struggles, she learns to love herself and inspire and motivate those around her going through similar battles. She realizes she now has lives to inspire, fueled with a vision that transcends beyond her own capacity and existence. Since she knows how it feels to be rejected as a child, her aim is to never allow anyone she encounters to experience that. It's a process to get to complete self-acceptance and Love.

2014 sparks a change. Nini spots a casting call online for the face of African fashion week and she applies. Her passion begins as a blurring flame for personal growth and confidence development. She now has an undying zeal and tenacity to want to inspire millennial's to not be afraid to be their true selves, to further allow their beautiful light to shine. One never knows what people are going through, by showing empathy we can help the process of healing, which promotes growth in many areas of one’s life. The desire to model wasn't evident in Nini’s mid to late teens, as she was trying to find out who "Nini" really was. She always enjoyed fashion, and used to dress up in her mother's clothing and get photographed by her elder sisters for fun.

Since her emergence as a supermodel in the Toronto fashion scene in 2014, Nini has made monumental strides. Inspirational and ambitious. Since modelling she’s grown so much, becoming internationally recognized and featured on so many platforms. Featured in numerous publications and TV segments, to being featured on CTV, Toronto Men's and Women's Fashion Week, Global TV, Glamour USA, and more, Nini’s just begun to disrupt Toronto’s fashion industry proving there's nothing she can't do.

Today, Nini introduces an extension of her heartbeat titled #WeAreRoyals, a non-for-profit organization that helps alleviate homelessness of the streets of Toronto, with the vision of expansion to the rest of North America, Africa and the Caribbean. Collaborations with existing charities are in the works to fully maximize its impact.

Toronto's Men's Fashion Week, Austen Dor's FW18 runway, the Winner of supermodel Canada, Nini Amerlise comes out strutting down the runway with power and poise. Her catwalk, evidently fierce and unforgettable she shines.