Meet Anya Shevchenko

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anya Shevchenko.

Anya, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in Lithuania in a Russian family. We moved back to a small town in Russia when I was 4. The population of the town was 50,000 people. At 16, I moved to Moscow by myself to study at Russian State Social University. I graduated with a Master’s in Finance and I started working in IT. Everyone has to go to college and get a 9 to 5 job, right? However, I was always searching for my true self. I didn’t quite fit in to a 9 to 5 job and Russia, so I started looking at other countries and cultures. I chose to move to Los Angeles so I broke up with someone I was seeing at that time and I made the move. It was just me… Pregnant…

It wasn’t the easiest thing to do but it was worth it. I am a big believer that dreams always come true. It’s just a matter of time and hard work. Now, I am happy living with my daughter, Rachel, in my dream city. I do modeling and I love it so it never feels like work. My daughter is six years old and a very successful model. She got signed with a modeling agency when she was 1 year old so I am very proud of her as well. I don’t have a man who has stolen my heart yet but who knows what 2020 has in store for me!

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Life has many bumps in the road and the more you go out of your comfort zone, the more challenges you face. How you deal with these challenges is important. First of all, I was all by myself with my daughter when I moved here. I had some savings but I knew it wasn’t going to last forever. Second, my English wasn’t good enough to seamlessly fit into society.

Also, I had the idea that I wanted to do modeling myself and I wanted my daughter to become a child model as, like every mom, I thought she was very beautiful. However, no one believed it was possible. Not even my family. They always thought I was the crazy one in the family. And yes, breaking through in Hollywood isn’t easy. It’s like the movie La La Land. Models and actors keep working for years hoping for that magical breakthrough. Everyone in LA is either a model, or an actor, or a producer. We didn’t know anyone and we didn’t have money to pay to get ahead. On top of it, we would constantly hear the negatives: blondes are not in trend anymore; we are not ethnically ambiguous (which is the thing now); I won’t make it because I’m Russian; or moms should stay home and not model, or my hips are 36 inches instead of 35, I am too old to start modeling, I am too skinny, and too natural. However, I pursued my dream anyway and little by little and grinding through day by day both of our resumes began to build up. Every new line on our resumes meant another battle was won.

After a couple of years in LA, I started experiencing a cultural shock. Like many new experiences, the romance began to wear off and reality began to sink in. Coming from another country and culture, I found it difficult to discern between good people and bad people due to differences in mentality. I was unlucky enough to meet bad people along my way. But I was fortunate to meet the most incredible people as well. People that inspired me by being themselves and doing what they love doing. People that believed in me and my daughter, people with good hearts, people that helped us through our struggles and frustrations. I am forever thankful for all of them as I wouldn’t be where I am without them. When I grow up, I want to give back to society through charities and foundations.

Please tell us about your work.
I am a fashion and runway model and Instagram influencer. I do lots of runways, LA Fashion Week, NY Fashion Week, TV shows, Telemundo, KTLA, magazines like QP magazine, Flaked, Toluca lake, and Apparel News. I have worked for brands like Walter collection, Jessica Angel collection, Carolina Herrera, Glaudi by Johana Hernandez and many others. Rachel and I also do a lot of mother and daughter jobs together. It is kind of unique because not every mother and daughter are both models and look very much alike. What sets me apart is that I haven’t had any plastic surgeries done and I am all about natural beauty and embracing what you already have. Most of the days, I barely have any make up on. I am at the gym every single day and always eat healthy. Also, I am selective about which jobs I take as I want to make sure I do more elegant modeling and only jobs that fit me, my personality and my lifestyle. While it would probably be easy to take my clothes off on every photo and get lots of Instagram hits,that’s not the direction I want to go in my career. This is why I set up my own company, ‘Elegant Network,’ to help other models and child models and give them the support and guidance we never really had.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anya.shevchenko_/

Image Credit:
Josh Ryan, Dreamstatelive, Chris Cruz, Barbara Ferrer, Beautybymichellev, Bokaos Aveda Pasadena

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