Emm Arruda
- beautyandavoice
- Jul 12, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Aug 11, 2023
Emm Arruda: The Strengthening Force of Obstacles
For the inaugural publication of the Beauty and a Voice fashion blog, I have had the tremendous opportunity to interview Emm Arruda. If you don’t know her, Emm is the embodiment of the values that have driven me to create this site. This past week, I watched her on Instagram live, walking for Chanel in Paris, as well as Dolce & Gabbana in Puglia, Italy.
Though she seems to have the runway written upon her very heart, the origins of Emm’s career were far from glamorous, far from Paris. She grew up in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and much of her youth was rendered difficult by a severe scoliosis diagnosis, necessitating an eventual surgery. Scoliosis, in its more severe manifestations, can lead to high levels of pain, breathing problems, and even debilitating hindrances to movement. Despite this enormous challenge, Emm was discovered in 2016, and decided to grasp the unexpected opportunity, quickly becoming immersed in the world of fashion. Emm’s love for modeling was apparent at the first array of test shoots, and the possibility of traveling the world, of working internationally, soon presented itself to her. By the next year she had moved her life to New York City, still a teenager, where she yet resides today.
The entrance, however, was only the first of a high stairwell of difficulties, each of which Emm tirelessly surmounted in her strivings for success. Along the ascent, the myths of the modeling industry were revealed to her for their truths: the model can never be just a pretty face. For Emm, they are a businessperson—optimistic, adapting, tireless, negotiating, exceedingly patient, dedicated and independent. These qualities persist in what Emm recognizes to be an industry in flux. Protection laws for models, and social media’s overwhelming potency, she notices, have created an ambience strikingly different from that space she entered as an adolescent seven years prior. “I’m happy to see more longevity lately in the careers of models in the industry.” Emm has told me, affirming that “It gives us more time to improve and really build something rather than the rapid exchange of new faces only being discarded to find the next.”
As her career burst into success, and Emm was walking for such brands as Louis Vuitton and Alexander McQueen, another roadblock of ill-health forced her capacity to persevere, and her enduring optimism, to be tested once more. For two years her health prevented Emm from working, earning, and living as she had been. But the remembrance of her past tenacity, and an unshakeable hope for the future, led her back, and above, where she stood previous to this new setback. At 23 years old, Emm is at the peak of her stardom to date.
Outside of modeling, Emm’s interests cover a wide scope. She is an ardent lover of people, of traveling, the study of psychology and astrology, diverse cuisines, and more generally the myriad arts and cultures of our world. For her, Emm’s personality is what sets her apart; likewise the vibe given off by others, whether genuine and loving, or mean and self-interested, is often the decider of her comfort or ill-ease. So crucial are love and genuine connection to Emm, that she seems to find her home not at all in a location, but in the love of those she cares for most: “Anytime there is sunshine and I’m with the people I love, I am truly happy.”
The captured moments of social media, and the distant spectacles of runway shows often appear to me as cold and far in their perfection. The opportunity to get to know Emm has shown me that behind these posts and walks, is a voice as beautiful as the face. I hope that my blog can help you discover another side of the perfect picture, as it has for me.
