Shallie Abbiusi is a name that’s starting to be more and more recognized, across the European and international fashion scene. Starting out as a beauty pageant queen, then later developing into a reality TV star from Belgium, Shallie now enjoys popularity as an Instagram influencer and model. Her work has been featured in numerous notable publications, and she now enjoys a thriving career as a TV presenter and plus-size model for West African channel GHOne TV. Moreover, Shallie is an entrepreneur, currently running her own social media game (which is almost 300k followers strong), and building her own empire.
So naturally, we wanted to ask her how she views social media in the present world.
“I strongly believe that social media is important for everyone and any business since our whole society shifted to online platforms,” she tells us, confiding that she considers social media “key for [her] brand”.
Shallie began her career when she won her first beauty pageant at age 18, and was swiftly scouted by an international modeling agency. She then appeared on reality TV programme “Temptation Island: Love or Leave”, as the first plus-sized contestant. It was also around this time that Shallie began being outspoken about bullying, and created an anti body-shaming movement across Europe.
If there is one thing she wishes she’d done differently, Shallie admits, it would’ve been starting sooner. At the time she won her first beauty pageant, she was studying to become a biomedical lab technician. She tells us she only quit that line of work in 2020, to go after her dreams properly, and wishes she’d done it sooner.
“But I strongly believe that everything happens for a reason and every experience makes us grow into the person we have to be to accomplish our goals.”
In spite of that, it looks like Shallie has done pretty well for herself. The self-confessed polyglot (speaking 6 languages, and understanding 7) quickly put her sharp wits to work in developing her social media game. So naturally, we were curious about some of the misconceptions and prejudices she encountered doing that, since no line of work is without its hiccups.
“When I started building my online brand as an influencer, people assumed that it was ‘just taking pictures and looking cute’ while there is so much work that goes into the content you create. Not just the creation but also understanding the algorithm, the branding, the technical aspect of editing videos,.. It is so time consuming, it’s a whole job!”
Although ambitious, Shallie was reluctant to share her goals, saying instead she “work[s] and see[s] results”. Our conversation shifted to how she likes to relax, and she told us of her deep love for music, particularly afro beats, reggae, but also old school R&B, and Drake.
Naturally, we couldn’t let her go without asking for some words of wisdom for someone who’s out there, making it every day.
“Plan before you make career jumps, prepare yourself mentally and financially to take risks. Keep pushing, work hard, no dream is too big if you really believe you can do it.”
