| bellosybellas.blogspot.com Emanuela de Paula (born April 25, 1989 in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Pernambuco) is a Brazilian model[1] She is currently the face of the UK retailer Next and the newest Victoria's Secret angel. De Paula can be seen in the 2009 Pirelli Calendar. De Paula was born to a white mother and a black father in Northeastern Brazil. She is popularly known as the "black Gisele" (a reference to the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen). De Paula first took an interest in modeling at the age of nine and asked her father to take her outside of the city so she could start modeling. De Paula immediately booked a supermarket advertisement but did not officially walk a runway until Fall of 2005. She knew at an early age she wanted to be a model. "I discovered myself", she proclaimed. At ten years old she started saving money to make a trip to the industrial epicenter of her country, São Paulo. By 15, she was visiting agencies and within a few days signed to the agency, Marilyn. "I was almost 16 with my son and alone in Tokyo only a few months later. I was so scared", she remembers. "I had no friends and spoke no English or Japanese... All I could say was 'hi' and 'bye'". De Paula started working immediately and quickly paid off her travel expenses. A few months later, she came to New York a tiny portable Japanese bicycle, a travel bag and healthy dose of acumen. Her first season yielded runway work for the likes of Ralph Lauren, Bill Blass and Zac Posen, as well as ... |
