Alek Wek Was Mistaken For A Boy

Alek Wek - www.swansneck.com

Alek Wek may be one of the top female supermodels today, what with her successful outings for such names as Calvin Klein, Issey Miyake, John Galliano and many others. But did you know that she was officially a boy when she came to England as a teenager?

That’s right. Wek, who hails from the African country of Sudan, was officially listed as male on the I.D. card she needed to travel. According to the supermodel—famous for her strong, shaven-headed look—this is how it happened:

"I needed an I.D. card and a passport to go to England... We had to choose a date (for my birthday). We decided on April 16. A street photographer took my picture, which my brother Wek took to the police office in the Khartoum business district to get my I.D. card. They never saw me in person and, looking at the photo of a tall, skinny kid with short hair, assumed that I was a boy. My formal I.D. card listed me as male, with an invented birth date.”

The glaring error notwithstanding, Wek and her sister Athieng made it safely to London, but almost never did when they landed unexpectedly in Frankfurt, Germany earlier. The language barrier confused the siblings, but luckily for them, a helpful stewardess took them to their next gate, which Wek and her sister—who only spoke Arabic and Dinka—never would have found otherwise.

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