The Kahani Of: Slesha Patel, Fashion Model
This piece is a part of our “The Kahani Of…” series. Kahani means story in Hindi and we want to explore the many diverse and interesting stories of the South Asian diaspora.
I sat down with Slesha Patel, a model, dear friend and longtime collaborator of Kahani. She is an absolute gem to work with but until recently, I had no idea of what an interesting journey she has been on to get to where she is now.
Slesha first started off modeling while she was in high school. She didn’t necessarily pursue modeling, but was scouted and decided to try it out as she had a sense of curiosity within her that she always liked to fulfill when she could. Growing up, she was awkward and shy so it definitely was an unexpected thing to get involved in. At 18 years old, she signed to her first agency in Kansas City, which was definitely not the best experience as it was just disorganized and unable to compete with the bigger name agencies in LA and New York.
For Slesha, modeling was something she was doing for fun and definitely wasn’t her priority. She had plans to go to med school and follow in the footsteps of her father - she ended up getting into a 6 year med program. However, that didn’t end up being the linear path Slesha thought she was taking. She ended up dropping out of that program to pursue her masters in Health Administration. For any South Asian parent, dropping out of a medical program (even if it was to pursue a MASTERS) is a hard pill to swallow and it was no different for her parents.
She started working at Johns Hopkins within health administration and was loving it. But an opportunity from one of her father’s friends came along and once again, wanting to fulfill her curiosity, she took it. She worked for a sustainable healthcare apparel company, due to her experience in fashion and healthcare - she was worried about starting from scratch, especially since she loved her job at Hopkins, but she just felt like it was an opportunity she couldn’t turn down.
Throughout her job with the healthcare apparel company, she thrived in the social scene of fashion. Networking within the industry was one of her main tasks so with any event she attended, she was working the room. She did this for about 2.5 years until the pandemic hit in 2020, which essentially was her exit from the industry. After this, Slesha took a bit of a mental health break and stepped back from her career pursuits. She does suffer from onset depression so this break was very warranted.
At this same time, the rise of tik tok influencers and the BLM movement was occurring, which prompted more opportunities for diverse talent. Being a South Asian and petite model, she really wanted to be a part of that shift and felt like it was the perfect time to start her journey to becoming a full-time model. With that, Slesha is a firm believer that there is indeed space for everyone - it should not just be filling a quota, which sometimes can be the case. Instead of keeping these modeling jobs to a set number of requirements, it should just be expanded. Slesha also doesn’t see models that look like her as competition - if a client likes her and a client likes another girl too, everyone is winning in her eyes. This is a very important view to have in order to succeed in this kind of field - there is no actual competition with anyone else but yourself. There is room for everyone and everyone should be a part of the table.
With casting directors, they are not looking for South Asians in particular, because there are just not enough South Asian models in the market. Which is exactly why Slesha makes it a point to apply for all sorts of jobs, even if the casting calls for something different than herself, in order to take up the space and get in front of people to really advocate for the South Asian demographic in mainstream media. She does acknowledge that we are not a monolith, but that is all the more reason to pursue any kind of public platform and that there is room for all of us to share our unique stories. Basically, take up space and build on people’s subconscious!
There are also opportunities for models to work in this industry in a non-model role. Back in the day, past a certain age, your career would be over. But now there is more opportunity within coaching, casting directing or working within an agency in some sort of capacity. However, Slesha has noticed a shortage of creatives in the video, photo, hair, makeup and fashion spaces and urges everyone to pursue that if it 's their passion. We can always use more familiar faces on the other side of the camera to foster safe, diverse and inclusive environments.
Due to her intermittent success with modeling, her parents are definitely now more open and proud about all of her modeling accomplishments. I think that’s very telling of brown parents - it is okay to pursue things out of the normal expectations as long as you achieve some sort of success. That doesn’t change the fact that this is still a touching and inspiring immigrant story, as it fulfilled the second wave of the American dream, where her father had the privilege to not only come here as a refugee for a better life, but also be able to provide his child the privilege of doing whatever they wanted.
Even though we are seeing more South Asian creatives, there is still room for more resources and support for one another. One of the main things Slesha wants people to understand is that it is okay to ask for help and to keep working at what you love and know that sometimes, it just takes time - it’s not “no”, it’s just “not now” and that is a very important nuance to keep in mind. Perseverance and resilience is truly the thing that sets people who do find the success they want versus the people who are still struggling to attain that. She also hopes to be an inspiration for anyone who ever felt like they had to “choose” a specific path instead of allowing a path to “choose” you. She genuinely believes we all have talents that are hidden within us, but as South Asians and immigrant children, we often don’t have the structure and framework to help us explore those further and as viable career opportunities but is happy to be a resource for anyone in any way she can.
Speaking with Slesha definitely shed light into an industry that is a bit unknown to South Asians, simply due to the lack of South Asian models. I hope someone who is considering pursuing modeling reads this and can gain the courage and confidence to move forward, take up space and keep going. We are a part of a beautiful, diverse, rich diaspora and you have all the right to represent your beauty and culture to the world.
LINKS
Follow Slesha on instagram
Third Eye Collective (fun fact- i applied to them but havent heard back yet haha):
My IG: https://www.instagram.com/slemyname/
Her agencies: