Winner of Miss Arab Next Top Model: ‘I’m Lucky to Be Moroccan’
This year’s edition of Arab Next Top Model, an international competition with 53 contestants held in Beirut, saw Moroccan model Sofia Saidi take home the “Miss Arab” crown on the night of Saturday, June 29.
The young model, who was born in Rabat, began modeling three years ago. Sofia explains her priorities with this statement “For me having a good academic background is a must. We are in an ever-changing world, today everything is going so fast, so for me, modeling is a passion but I know for sure that I will not do this all my life. So I wanted to succeed in my academic career in conjunction with modeling,”
Succeed she has. After gaining a bachelor degree in international management, Saidi went on to obtain two masters degrees from the Panthéon-Assas University Paris II, one in strategic organizational and technological evolutionism where she was valedictorian, and the second in strategic management and entrepreneurship. “I was working as a project chief manager at PSA group in Paris when I was contacted by World Next Top Model to represent my beautiful country, Morocco,” she explained. “I jumped at the opportunity to represent Arabic beauty and to show the world that you can care about your appearance and beauty, as well as building a good academic background.”
Although, Saidi admitted the balance is not always simple. “It wasn’t easy to prepare for the competition and juggle my studies, especially at the beginning. When I finished class and all my comrades were going home, and I had to go to photo shoots,” she said. “I was tired but when you are driven by a passion, it doesn’t matter. It’s like when you go to the gym after a difficult session, even though it’s hard you will never regret it.”
Her hard work clearly paid off, with Saidi taking home the crown. “This title means a lot to me. I’ve been for the competition for about a year. I started to go seriously to the gym to be in the best shape possible, as well as working on my speech to the Lebanese press.” “I also worked a lot to enhance my beauty in a natural way, and I had to practice my runway walk a lot. The competition wasn’t easy, but I made it now I can say I am Miss Arab World Next Top Model 2019.”
