Inside NET-A-PORTER’s Incredible Women Conversation With Adwoa Aboah

“In all facets of life, I think where women are the majority, we have been pitted against each other in a kind of competitive environment, in order to keep us separate, and that really comes into play in fashion,” Adwoa Aboah told content director Alice Casely-Hayford as they sat down for an intimate discussion in The Red Room at The Twenty Two. The model, actor, Gurls Talk founder and entrepreneur confronts this by creating a circle of support and transparency with her friends and fellow models in the industry. “I try to speak to my girls about work environments and clients, [and] about rates – it’s definitely a very uncomfortable thing to talk about. It’s about self-worth at the end of the day. It’s up to us to create an environment where we can share.”

Building community is something Aboah is adept at. Marking 10 years this year since she launched her mental health platform Gurls Talk, she reflected on the journey she’s been on since it started, her hopes for the next decade, and how welcoming her daughter, Shy, has profoundly influenced the issues she wants to address. “I hope Shy always knows she can speak to me about whatever’s going on in her life.”

She talked about returning to work as a new mother: “It’s been interesting having to reestablish myself in an industry that I’ve given years of my life to,” as well as sharing how her move into acting (which included a role in Lena Dunham’s smash-hit show of the summer, Too Much) required her to “really check my ego because I was used to a certain position with modeling and I didn’t have that with acting… [But] I had to reevaluate what brought me joy in my life.”