We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sydney Allen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sydney, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

That women will know they can be empowered for themselves and others, and they don’t have to start early to still have an impact. This impact can be on people’s interpersonal or professional lives, or in their industry.

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?

What got me interested into the world of style and modeling was, believe it or not, just getting in front of the camera for the first time. I had always found boudoir shoots to be interesting. The women in them always seemed to be confident, content, and powerful. That’s what sparked my interest into doing my own at the age of 42. I wanted that. I did my research and found a good boudoir photographer and booked my session. The results were amazing. I had seen myself in a different light than I had ever seen myself before. This gave me the motivation to see how far I could go with it. At what is considered a very mature age to begin modeling, I thought, “What do I have to lose?”.

I’m quite a unique person in many ways, and my modeling style is no different. I didn’t go to modeling school. I studied poses from other models and get inspiration for them using my surroundings and what fits the aesthetic. Modeling is my creative outlet and how I express myself. I tap into that when I’m in front of the camera.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I have a healthy and viable way I can channel my creative thoughts. I do this through how I style myself in shoots, the expressions I convey, and the conceptual ideas while collaborating with photographers. I get to express myself in a way I couldn’t before.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

That being transparent has to be done at the right time and varies from person to person, and must be done judiciously. There’s a lot of people out there that will discriminate against you because of your age, your look, your sexuality, gender, etc. Laying all those cards out on the table at the beginning rarely is beneficial. This is emphasized even more with something that has your face on it, something that revolves around it. Being in the spotlight highlights imperfections actually there as well as ones that aren’t.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/vex.model
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/syd.e.allen
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/VexModel

Image Credits
Kevin Werhmeister SOHO McKinney Chris Taylor Robert Avery Stephen Boyd Red Kulis Alfredo Arteta Lee Pierce Mario Aguilar Steve Trew