Viral Instagram photo of a teenage South Sudanese girl makes her a global star

A photographer, Steven Hall took a photo of a 19-year-old college girl, Anok Yai among other attendees at Howard University’s homecoming and she been signed to a global modeling agency after her

The sophomore at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire was convinced by her friend, Ronelle to travel to Washington, D.C. last weekend for the historically Black university’s homecoming festivities only to pursue her childhood dream.

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As a child, she always dreamt of becoming a top model and watched the popular hit show, America’s Next Top Model with her sister.

Miss Yai posed for few photos when she bumped into photographer Steve Hall, who was taking pictures for his fashion website. The SUNK while wandering through the festival.

Surprisingly, Anok Yai wasn’t even a fan of the photo describing it as a “deer in headlights”and just an “average” photo.

The South Sudanese student admitted that she thought it was an “average photo” and that she’d possibly gain a few new followers from the post.

Instantly, she became a superstar after the photo was posted on Instagram. Her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing as thousands of people shared and commented on the post.

“My phone just started vibrating rapidly for a long, long time,” Yai told The Boston Globe. “At first, I honestly thought someone made a meme of me or something.”

Since then, Yai has been contacted by several modeling agencies and signed with Next Models on Tuesday.She now joins famous faces like Yasmin Warsame, Karlie Kloss and Milla Jovovich on the books of Next Models agency in New York.

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Miss Yai, was born in Egypt and of Sudanese heritage, moved to the US when she was two years old and grew up in the city of Manchester, in New Hampshire.

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Yai, who’s studying biochemistry, is planning to pursue model part-time while she continues college.

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“It was a dream that I always wanted, but I wasn’t sure if it was going to happen,” she shared with The Boston Globe.

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