Multifaceted entertainer, fashion model and content creator, Raheem Abike Halimah better known as Papaya Ex has explained her obsession with fashion.
“I like fashion and beauty from day one, then I decided to make it my career and so far so good, I haven’t regretted choosing this career path. Fashion is my lifestyle basically, it starts from what I wear and the clothes I find attractive. So my lifestyle is what speaks for me as a fashion model,” she said with pride.
She noted that a fashion model is someone who has the ability to visualize fashion and bring style to life.
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“I didn’t plan to go into it actually, I just started by posting pictures like a random pretty girl then along the line, people fell in love with my content, little by little, I found myself in the industry. So, for me as a person, fashion is my lifestyle,” she added.
Speaking further on being a fashion model, Papaya Ex said it all appears as glamour and glitz but it entails so much hard work.
“Experience as a fashion model in Nigeria is hectic but bare-able at least, also time consuming from creating content, posting contents, appearances, because sometimes I shoot almost 20 hours in a day then before we now talk about trolls online. It’s a long story because people feel like they know me and my personal life too much, so they want to judge all day, and honestly, I just would be chilling and doing my thing how I know to do it, life isn’t that serious. Being a fashion model sounds glamorous, but it requires a lot of hard work and consistency. However, spending your day making others feel truly pampered, or looking great can be both fun, exhausting and rewarding,” she explained.
Papaya Ex is not always a fashion model, she’s also an actor and brand influencer. In fact her fan base of over 600,000 followers on Instagram has turned her into a sensation and some brands have felt comfortable to partner with her to promote their brand.
She is from Oyo State and has lived in Lagos and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
She started her acting career in 2019 doing mostly short films and skits and shot into the limelight in 2020, when she starred in a short movie titled “Two Way Street”. But being a multifaceted entertainer, her attention has been shared by other interests. However, acting remains hot on her table.
“I think one of the biggest challenges for myself as an actor is letting go. Letting go of needing to be perfect, letting go of emotional status; because honestly, being an actor can burn you out then letting go of not being hard on one’s self,” she said