A Year After She Photobombed Her Way Into Limelight, How Much Has Olajumoke’s Life Changed?

Follow @eventlabgh < About a year ago, the most Cinderella-esque story to come out of our country happened. A bread...

By Eventlabgh , in Celebrity Entertainment News , at February 7, 2017

About a year ago, the most Cinderella-esque story to come out of our country happened.

A bread hawker stumbled onto a photography set where TY Bello was shooting British-Nigerian rapper Tinnie Tempah and things were never the same.

Olajumoke Orisaguna, as we would find out her name was, became the perfect example of a modern day grass-to-grace story.

Olajumoke photographed by TY Bello of ThisDay Style

TY Bello gave her a stunning photoshoot on the cover of ThisDay Style and she became a known face featured everywhere from Thenetng to Buzzfeed to CNN.

Her background of having to come and hustle in Lagos from her native Ogbomosho made her story all the more compelling.

Soon she was signed up by Few Models – she would later be managed by Beth Models – and went on to signing endorsement deals.

Luxury real estate company Sujimoto also pledged to give her a ‘scholarship’ to go with the three-bedroom apartment she was gifted with her husband and their two young children.

Olajumoke for April by Kunbi

Poise Nigeria, a finishing/etiquette school took her in and has been training her communication and ‘personality development’.

Those two might still be work in progress but Olajumoke looks nothing like when she was found with a thousand naira’s worth of bread on her head.

A year later, can it be said that her life has changed? Most definitely!

While it remains to be seen if she can make the grade as a fashion model, it is without a doubt that within the last 12 months that she has transitioned from abject poverty into a semblance of middle class existence.

Besides, who says every model has to be an Oluchi? (Even Oluchi’s less than glamorous beginning is known in Ojuelegba).

Every Nigerian craves the chance to leap out of penury into a better life and Olajumoke represents that leap. Of course not every disadvantaged individual will be fortunate enough to enjoy overnight transformation like Olajumoke.

However, even the most cynical will agree that her story is one of success. It’s been said in some quarters that all of the brands jumping on her story are ‘opportunistic’ and simply using her.

It would be naive to assume the brands would not – who wouldn’t jump on a trending heartwarming story such as this to make themselves good?

Nevertheless, Olajumoke has been taken care of by the brands that have worked with her and it does not have to be out of altruism. Whatever she is paid would be worth the ‘use’.

If she had been earning only a fraction of what she has earned as a model, she may never have had to resort to hawking. She may never become a supermodel. She may be forgotten in a few months. But her life would never be the same.

Perhaps, when all of this is over (and it may never be over) she would have made a few thousands to buy hairdressing equipment – her dream was to have a hairdressing salon. That would still have been a remarkable journey. That in itself, is a success story.