Craving for Entreat…In Request for Longing…Yearning to Implore…In Need for Aspiration. These are just a few definitions of the word Desire... well before Ashlee that is.
Southern California native and up and coming model, Ashlee Desire, not only has a sultry last name, but she has everyone doing exactly what it means...wanting to know more.
Her ingenuous striking hazel hinted with specks of green eyes shine radiantly and passionately with a desirable strength that stems from the humbleness embedded within her soul. Her brown freckles splash across her mellow-yellow sun tainted skin, creating a trail to the beauty encircling her entire being.
Everything about her is melodiously commensurable from her the top of her head to the tip of her toes, her beauty shows. However, it’s those eyes that catches people, and makes them stop to and try to look at more than just a pretty face. Those luminous rays of light that amalgamate and bring people back to the first time they saw a sunrise. As she walks amongst the crowd taking a few short glances, she leaves them yearning for more than just a picture.
With mystifying smoothness, her mesmeric individuality and lively nature, will pull you in like a dog chasing after a bone, and once you get that bone you’ll never want to give it back.
Not The Girl Next Door
Yet it was not always like this for the 19 year old, 5-foot-9, 125-pound. exquisite young woman whom one day will more than likely be “America’s Next Top Model,” just without the reality show and Tyra Banks. In her adolescent years people didn’t even see her as “the girl next door,” because they did not even notice her at all.
“In high school I was an outcast,” said Desire. “I walked around with my face stuck in books, such as Omar Tyree, Sistah Souljah, and Zane. I hardly had any friends”
Desire said that high school was a difficult period in her life, because there was hardly anyone there to support her.
“No one had my back when I was in high school,” Desire said solemnly. “I guess people thought that I was ugly and didn’t want to hang out with me. I didn’t even have a boyfriend in high school.”
Ashlee=Desire
But little did she know that two years after high school graduation, her magnetism and appeal would draw people in and light up her fair melodic face like an optical illusion of water in the Sahara desert.
“Now that I’m out of high school, people are always complimenting me,” said Desire still in awe. “But I don’t let it get to my head because I still think about my high school days when I was the ugly duckling. I don’t want to have an arrogant attitude, because I don’t want to lose what I have.”
It was always a dream of Desire to be a model, but the initial lack of support from her family deterred her away from it.
“I realized that modeling was my passion when I was 12 years old,” said Desire. “I heard about a casting in Las Vegas at Circus Circus. It was a casting for Model Search America, and me and my big sister went and both got picked by agencies. But I had very little support with my endeavor because my family thought that I could never do it.”
No one believed that Desire’s dream would come true. But at the age of 17 years old her dream slowly started to become a reality. And her modeling passion began to materialize before her.
“My First modeling gig was when I was 17,” said Desire eagerly. ”It was this one designer who was getting ready for Fashion Week in downtown Los Angeles. I was walking with my mother and saw him sewing his dress in the window of his shop, so I stopped and asked him if he ‘needed any models for L.A .Fashion Week.’ He looked at me and said that he loved my look and answered ‘Yes. Perfect.’”
In just one fashion show during the L.A. Fashion Week Desire’s boldness was shown, because even though she had little experience, she was able to walk the runway like a seasoned veteran. And the metamorphosis of herself and the way others began to look at her fascinated her.
“I’m bold,” said Desire. “But it’s the way that I’ve always had to be because no one seemed interested to help me during the tough times.And back then my only modeling experience was from watching my favorite model Omahyra Mota on television, and practicing walking like her in front of my mom’s mirror at the house. You have to be bold in modeling.”
A Lil Bit Bout Ashlee
Desire regularly reads motivational books like Sistah Souljah’s “The Coldest Winter Ever.” She loves all types of music such as jazz, hip-hop, soul, R & B, underground music.
“I don’t like propaganda literature or music,” Desire said . “I’m definitely not into this music talking about getting money, girls, and sex… I like an artist to tell me about their life…”
One of favorite models like mentioned earlier, Omahyra Mota.
She said fiercely, “Omahyra Mota Gracia, I admire her for every movie she has made in the Industry, from tearing down the Runway with her unique physique, to her amazing power to hold and keep the attention of every eye staring at the runway to holding down her home Dominican Republic... and to setting fire to the movie screens in X-man 3.”
The young woman wears a Nike dog tag on her neck to remind her of her motto, “Just do it.”
“When I’m feeling weary about something, I tell myself, ‘Just do it,’ because I sometimes you have to be bold and do things that you wouldn’t normally do,” said Desire focusedly.
NYC is Where it’s at Baby
In regards to “Just do(ing) it,” Desire just moved to New York last month from Los Angeles with hopes to better her modeling career.
“I moved to New York because there are more modeling opportunities out here,” said Desire. “People out here are great in terms of fashion and everywhere I go I get a contact. There are times when I miss L.A. because I’m still getting use to being out here, but I just had to do it.”
Influentials
The most influential people in her life are her best friend Tiffaney Thompson and mother.
With emotion in her voice Desire said, “My dear friend Tiffany Thompson has been a practical therapist, my shoulder to lean on, my diary, my motivational speaker and someone I’ve trusted with everything I behold.”
“My mother showed me the strength within myself to be an individual and how to not be a follower, but a leader.”
2years Strong
In two short years Desire has worked with nearly one hundred fashion designers, in multiple fashion shoots and designer showcases. A few of the companies and fashion shows that she has worked with are Sterling Williams, Karl Kani, Ed hardy & Christian Audigier, Lady Dutch, FRANCO+RUSSE, and Von Dutch, etc.
Desire’s hopeful ambitions are to gain more achievements in the modeling industry and keep a sense of modesty.
My future goals are to prosper more and more and more in this modeling industry,” said Desire with pride. “Because every time I step on a runway or have a photo shoot, I see it as an accomplishment, because a model’s not guaranteed another show, that’s why I most of all I want to maintain my humbleness.”
Mix ‘N’ Match and Victorians
She does not have a distinct style, but if it were up to Desire she’d wear Victorian dresses for the rest of her life.
“My look is not defined because I change my style everyday,” said Desire with a corky laugh. “I mix and match and match and mix, I grab things out of my closet and put them together and it looks good,” as Desire laughs out loud she says, “Honestly this is my dream, if it were up to me I’d wear Renaissance gowns everyday for the rest of my life…,” she pauses, and added seriously, “Oh and with a corset, like the Victorians did. I love those dresses.”
D for Desired
The now highly “Desired” woman rids away the primordial labels of the spoiled, egocentric, irrational, disastrously characteristics of a model. She is unlike other models who think of themselves as delicate creatures whose self-awareness walks hand in hand with their appearance and are reluctant and vulnerably not capable of seeing life aside from their small binoculars.
She said that financial support is the key to having even the slightest of a chance in the modeling scene, she didn’t have that much, but she had more than others.
“It’s hard because if a person lives with their mother, they can model if they have financial support,” said Desire But if they live on their own and do not have financial stability it is very difficult. I lived with my grandparents, but My Mother still is a hard working woman with a lot of love for me.”
In comparison to other many models, Desire is enticing and a multifaceted mélange of visions, ambitions, a multifarious substantial woman attached with numerous talents that will only manifest from thorough verbalization.
People Gotta Know
“I want people to know that I’m generous, kind, crazy, cool, and funny,” said Desire. “And that I don’t mind the negative nor the positive, because I don’t let anybody judge who I am. Because it’s my choice and I am who I am…”
No more just being the girl that no one notices during the strange adolescent years, Desire is full of vivacity, intellect, and sweetness that makes her a role model to younger aspiring models.
“I don’t see a person’s age, status, or appearance,” said Desire. “I sincerely believe that anyone can do anything despite so-called incapability because to me they don’t exist.”
Mirror Image
In spite of increasing recognition and an overload of compliments, when Desire wakes up each morning she still sees what she’s always seen, and that’s herself.
“When I look in the mirror in the morning I see swollen lips and tiresome eyes,” said Desire in an upbeat laughing out loud tone of voice.
Sincerely she said , “But most of all I see Ashlee, a woman who’s had hard times but is here and alive. It’s like I’m meeting myself and noticing who I am each day and I’m alive!”
