“I believe injoy and joy is something that only God can give you but happiness is what's happening around you and that's temporary.” – Jessica White
With the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue hitting the stands, IMTA alum Jessica White has made history by appearing for the 6th time in the iconic magazine. But White does not take fame for granted. She is proud of what she has accomplished and is grateful for the opportunities being a Sports Illustrated model have given her. “To be honest with you, being in Sports Illustrated made me famous,” says White. “Once that happened I started to break some barriers. They've used African-American girls but no woman of color has been in the magazine for asl ong as I have. I learned so much more about my body and I really started to perfect my skills as a model working with Sports Illustrated.”
White is very candid about the hard work required to be a Swimsuit Issue model. “You sit there nude, surrounded by people you don't know and you don't know what they're thinking about you. You're standing there in the hot or cold dealing with your own personal insecurities…It's very hard.” White says modeling is like acting. “It's being an actor without saying anything but doing it with your body, your facial expressions. It's not easy.People think it's very easy, but it's difficult.”
White, who turns 25 in June, attended IMTA in New York 1999 at age 16. She shot her first Sports Illustrated spread at age 18. She acknowledges that her life has changed a lot since then, but that she is still learning and growing as a person and a model. “2008 was the year of new beginnings. I learned a lot because I'm walking into a new stage of my life personally and professionally.” She adds, “Sometimes I can be too quick with my decisions so I learned how to think things through and not be so quick to speak. I'm trying to listen more.”
While White has adjusted to being a very recognizable face, she is very conscious of her responsibility as a role model for young African-American girls. She recalls a New York Post story about her that mentioned she was the first African-American model to have two beauty contracts. “I never thought I would be the first to do anything in my life, and at that moment, I sat back and thought that I just broke a barrier, I made history. Another young girl can look at me and say I want to be just like Jessica White.”