Of all the actresses, models, and celebrities at the highly-publicized Met Gala, one stood above the rest: Anok Yai, who came onto the scene following an appearance at Howard University’s homecoming Yai captured audiences with her sparkling teal-green dress that went viral on social media.
The original post of her dancing garnered 3.8 million views and more than 77,000 likes in less than 12 hours. User @BLOWthisJAE_ quoted the original post: “still not over the fact she was discovered from a photo at Howard University homecoming.” Their quote response, posted at 7:11 a.m. on May 7, brought in another 2.1 million views and 65,000 likes.
Back in 2017, Yai was a sophomore student at Plymouth State University in New Hampshire. She decided to attend Howard University’s homecoming festivities, where photographer Steven Hall captured a candid photo of the future model. He posted it on his Instagram page @TheSUNK with the caption, “Saw her right at the end of Yardfest. Stunning @anokyai.”
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Yai told The Boston Globe in 2019 that she didn’t think much of the picture. Luckily for her, the post gained over 13,000 likes, and today stands at nearly 29,000. Before Hall posted the photo, he gave Yai a bit of encouragement.
“Mysterious. Just a tall, dark-skinned and insanely beautiful person,” he told The Washington Post. “I told her, ‘I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but you should definitely be photographed and you should be modeling.’”
Clearly, other people agreed with Hall’s assessment. Yai’s phone kept buzzing with positive comments on Instagram.
“When it got to a couple thousand and it just kept going higher and higher, I was surprised,” she said. “And I was happy. I always wanted it to happen, but it was something I never expected.”
Yai’s Instagram following skyrocketed from 300 to more than 50,000 in a matter of days. She started receiving emails from modeling agencies, some of which even offered to fly her out for in-person interviews. She struggled with juggling her newfound success and, as a biochemistry major, keeping up with her studies.
“There was one day where I had a bunch of classes, and I had done about three to four interviews, and my sister kept saying here’s another one, and here’s another one,” she said. “And I was nervous because I had just gone from being a random girl living in New Hampshire to an Instagram-famous model. I wasn’t sure if I could handle all the expectations.”
Growing up, Yai loved watching America’s Next Top Model. She dreamed of becoming like those models, but the absence of dark-skinned women made her cautious. Today, seven years after her discovery, Yai is blazing her own trail. One commenter under Hall’s initial post still rings true.
“You are such an inspiration to young black [girls] growing up [to] believe in yourself,” they wrote. “All sorts of perfection… I I was I saw more of such confident dark skin girls in my teens.”
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