Former D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson has switched careers, becoming a fashion model for online retailer Eloquii.
Henderson, 46, who resigned from the schools system in September, now spends time in front of a camera in New York, showing how plus-size women can be just as beautiful as others.
“It was a totally kind of serendipitous situation,” Henderson recently told WTTG-TV (Channel 5). “Eloquii does a segment called ‘Style and Substance’ where they feature their customers who also do substantive work and they featured a good friend of mine Kenya Bradshaw last year. I saw her pictures. She was flown to New York, she was glammed up, she was in these beautiful clothes.
“I was like, ‘Kenya, how in the world did that happen?’” Henderson said. “She was like, ‘I can call them and ask them if they would feature you.’ And I was like, ‘That would be great.’ So it was that easy.
“I spoke to the Eloquii folks and they were very excited about having me talk about my career and to do some modeling for them, so they flew me to New York City and they glammed me up and I got to wear these super cool clothes and it was amazing,” she said.
Henderson, whose style is described as “fairly conservative but rebellious with color,” said the experience worked out so well that Eloquii called her back.
“They said, ‘Look, we have gotten so much of a positive response, would you do some work for our February catalogue?’ she said. “So I flew to New York again. This February, we will have a bunch of new pictures out and [it was] lots of fun.”