Adwoa Aboah on How She Accidentally Became a Mental Health Advocate and What Community Really Means
“I didn’t really set out to share my story.”
Truly, Adwoa Aboah is that girl. She skyrocketed to fame with her captivating presence on global runways and in fashion campaigns. But she’s not just a model — The Brit model is using her platform and talents to make a difference. Lately, she has been passionately raising awareness on the challenges of mental health challenges through her own personal struggles.
Even though Aboah has noted that she comes from a background of privilege, she has been vocal about not being exempt from falling victim to the societal pressures and ebb and flows of life and mental challenges, which led her to start her community-driven non-profit organization Gurls Talk in 2015. Through this, she cultivated a safe space for young girls and women to self-realize and work towards being their best selves.
Now, Aboah is spreading her life, love and joy as Jo Malone London‘s global ambassador, spearheading mental health advocacy and well-being with the brands community. Here, the star has chatted exclusively with the Hypebae Beauty team on lessons learned in this role, her relationship with fragrance and how her journey as a mental health advocate began.
Jo Malone London
As you’ve sat in the role of Jo Malone London’s Global Ambassador for over a year, has the role awaked a new sense of awareness for you? What have been a few lessons you’ve learned in this capacity?
Yeah, I think it’s just been so easy, you know, from the get go. And I think that’s definitely been so rewarding, is that things really don’t have to be so complicated when you were aligned from the start. And I think I had a newfound confidence when I first started working with Jo Malone London.
So I really set a precedent of what I wanted to achieve what I wanted us to do together, and also what I wanted the messaging to be. And I think we both like, you know, stood to that. There’s been a 50/50 Respect for both the partnership, what we need to do, the products that we need to kind of activate, but also the messaging that we spoke about from the beginning.
So I think for me, it set a precedent for how I want other partnerships to work as well, you know, and that my opinion, stands for something as well, you know?
You’ve been very open about your mental health journey — how did you embrace being able to share an intimate part of your life so vulnerably?
I think it’s changed over the years from the beginning, you know, I didn’t really set out to just share my story. I truly stand that I was just asked the right questions at the right time, and I think over the years, my perspective on my story has changed —± the way I talk about it, the fact that I’ve obviously grown and have new experiences, a new way to kind of articulate what I went through and what I’m still going through. I think that has come with some confidence.
Jo Malone London has brand values of Optimism, Courage, Humility and Transparency — how do they align with your personal ethos and what do they mean to you?
Optimism. At Gurls Talk, we are continuously talking about how it is quite hard and how people are like showing themselves in a very vulnerable way. One has to pay respect to the fact that it’s a hard thing for people to do. But what we also try and do is root these stories in hope and optimism. So these values align with everything we do at Gurls Talk.
Jo Malone London
I’m a firm believer that beauty in all its forms has the gift to heal in many different ways; For fragrance, would you say that there is healing power in the sensorial experience?
Yeah, for me I completely agree. I love how a scent can bring you back to a particular time in your life; remind you of a person who might not even be there anymore. I, there are many scents that really remind me of very poignant moments in my life.
What is your first experience with scent and do you find that being Jo Malone London’s Global Ambassador you’re able to relive those precious moments?
Some of my first moments were just like walking into a kind of a Boots or Superdrug and like trying every single kind of fragrance there, or going into my mom’s bathroom and stealing her perfume.
I think something we’ve been able to do at Jo Malone London is add some humor in there. There’s a lightness. It feels aspirational, but also relatable. And I think those two definitely align you know, it’s like it feels useful as well you know.
This interview has been condensed for clarity.
