How many of us can say that at 25 we knew exactly what we wanted to be?
Emelda Gininda does, and gives the impression that she has known where she is going from a young age.
“I always believed I’m a work of art,” she says. She has fine features, with high cheek bones, sensual red lips, bold eyebrows, assertive eyes, a fiercely short Mohawk haircut, and is 1.74cm tall. She wears very little make up.
“I love the way God has created me, I’m unique and I love it.”
Emelda says that within the next five years she will be an international model.
She confesses that she always had more fashion and art magazines in her school bag than school books.
She always bucks the trend, so that when others were going trendy, she went vintage, always with her own style twist; when others were having weaves, she cut her hair short.
Others like her style too. At model castings she is often asked if she can wear her own clothes once the shoot is confirmed. In fact, these days she often bypasses the castings, and is called directly for the photo shoot, she says.
Emelda rattles off some impressive shoots: at Constitution Hill, for their website, Destiny magazine, and Mercedes Benz. She’s done TV commercials for VW, Nescafe, and the DStv magazine.
When she’s not making her mark in the modelling world, she works at the upmarket boutique Thula Sindi in Menlyn Park, Pretoria.
It’s not been all perfect though. She tried her hand at acting when she first moved from Mpumalanga to Jozi five years ago. She auditioned for a role in the soapie Generations, but didn’t make it because she “just wasn’t experienced as an actor”. She’s since had acting classes, and is now waiting for the right role to come along.
Jozi feels like home now, says Emelda, where it is “easy to get anything you want”. More importantly, where ”dreams are made”.
She has got to where she is now thanks to her supportive parents, she says. “They have allowed me to be myself, and always encouraged me to go for my dreams.” Her two sisters are studying engineering.
How would she describe herself, I ask? “A proud African woman, as raw as I am.” And what does that mean? “I don’t love artificial, just a bit of make up and that’s it”.