Thando Hopa

Thando Hopa is a South African lawyer, activist and model. Thando Hopa is wowing the fashion world. In 2013 Thando  won the Most stylish model award. She also bagged the new face of Audi‘s SUV car gig in 2017.

Hopa started modelling when she was approached by designer Gert-Johan Coetzee at a shopping mall in Johannesburg in 2012.

Thando speaks often about the importance of self-acceptance, self-love and why women should embrace themselves first. “Women need to know they are adequate, and find “enoughness” in every sense of themselves,” said Hopa.

Her journey with embracing this in her own life started when she did her first “bare-faced” no make-up shoot (similar to the cover of Marie Claire’s August issue), a fear she had to face on the spot, as well as at the tender age of 11, facing a childhood memory filled with fear.

“Looking different and standing out because of my appearance had always made me feel anxious, as I was often teased about it,” she explained. “This first shoot started me on my journey towards self–acceptance and ‘enoughness’. I realised that by stretching my own boundaries, I was doing it not only for myself but also for all the young girls out there who were feeling that they were not enough. The truth is, we ARE all enough, and when we believe that, the world comes to believe that too.”

She links that to what it means to her to be on the cover of Marie Claire’s August issue, especially during Women’s Month and in the inaugural Power Issue, because, she said: “It is important to celebrate and embrace image diversity.”