We recently connected with McKenna Joy and have shared our conversation below.

McKenna, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

The most important lesson I learned was to be able to take criticism without making a face or allowing it to getting under your skin. Going into castings and having someone say ‘you are too thick, your eyebrows are uneven, you are too tall, your hands are too large’ can really take a toll on YOU, not only that, but it can be offensive. You have to learn to take that with stride and keep a smile on your face. This is something THAT I learned very fast. Reminding MYSELF that it isn’t about ‘ME’ helps me stay in the business and keep my mental state straight.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into modeling when I was 20 because I loved to be Infront of the camera, always have and probably always will. My biggest asset is being versatile. One day I will wake up for an art nude job and then when I am finished with that I will be shooting wedding gowns. The next day will then be a hand modeling job with a movie booking after that. You never know what you are going to get, which makes the job so fun! I want people to see that I want to create art and inspire others to do the same and be confident in themselves! I want to create images that make people feel something.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

I have entered the NFT space. I have had my images in a few art gallery shows and also articles written on me about posing nude and destigmatizing women’s bodies through the NFT space, which is something I really love to be the APART OF. I think nudity should be normal, so it means a lot that my work is being recognized for something so powerful. I think it’s fantastic and is going to go far, even though I personally really love books or prints instead.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Being a travelling international model is tons of fun, but you really have to put trust into people you have never met when flying to other states and even countres. Sometimes you arrive at a photoshoot and instead of a studio it is someone’s studio apartment, or when I flew into Turkey by myself I was meeting some random driver to take me to some random apartment and you just hope for the best. The worst is when you cannot speak the same language and there is no translator. There have been plently of times I look back and think ‘wow that could have worked out very poorly’. Everything has been okay, but being a female in places by yourself not speaking the LANGUAGE can be extremely intimidating. You learn to trust your gut, most of the time if you have a bad feeling it is correct.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: mckennajoy_
• Facebook: McKenna Joy
• Other: Tiktok: @mckennajoy_

Image Credits
Manny Xabier @m.xabier_ Anita Sadowska @sadowskaphoto Chris Knight @chrisknightphoto Elfego Solares @_elfego Miloš Dojić @oxmilos Jovana @jovana.mua Vladimir Ilić @itsvladimirilic De’Ja Baker @deja_tyre Lori Sapio @lori_sapio_photographer