Less than a year ago Anabel Sanchez dreams of being a model From the deep suburbs the girl, just turned 18, started with her home fashion productions. Her girl would take hours out of her sleep to sew her own clothes with a borrowed machine and she would use a window frame as a tripod to hold her cell phone steady.
Anabel also stole a freshly washed sheet from her mother to use as a background for the images and used the few paints she could buy for makeup. The girl is a brunette with strong features and she shows the impetus in her eyes. Any photo of Sánchez will give the feeling that she can take the whole world with her. Also, her lively eyes hide a past of abuse and violence by his father.
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From the suburbs to the world
Fighting so hard, this week a great opportunity came for the girl from the San Agustín neighborhood, in San Francisco Solano. From the deep suburbs, Anabel came to high exposure. She learned some English and with a home edition she uploaded a video for a casting call that she opened Vogue magazine for new models.
The selected girls will become part of the Vogue Open Casting Class of 2023, giving them the chance to appear in a photo shoot that will be published in a fall issue of the magazine’s global editions. Anabel already imagines walking her long brunette legs among girls from anywhere in the world. It won’t be easy, but “my smile from the suburbs can do everything”, she enthuses.
“I sent myself one, although at first I was a little afraid,” Sánchez recounts in a telephone dialogue with Infobae. I told myself who is going to see me? And I sent it when there were barely two days left for the end of the call”.
The result of the international publication has not yet been known, but the casting that Anabel uploaded to her TikTok It has already been seen by a million and a half people. Even María Becerra reposted it on Instagram.
In English with a Latin accent, Anabel introduces herself to the Vogue world. Her dream is to reach the tops that Valeria Mazza or Claudia Schiffer once occupied in the 90s. She has an air of Carolina Peleriti. Dark-haired and short-haired, she shows her walk on the catwalk with a background of exposed brick, classic of the suburbs, her place in the world.
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The mother who accompanies
Anabel lives with her mother, her 7 and 3 year old brothers and her 16 year old sister who is a well known boxer in Solano. They live in a typical suburban house on a dirt street with grass sidewalks. Upstairs from his house is his grandparents’ house.
“My mom is very happy with everything that is happening to me,” explains the model. She accompanied me to the first photo sessions in Buenos Aires to take care of me because she didn’t know what I was getting into. And now she is happy like me because she sees that I can start to fulfill my dreams ”.
Until 3 years ago, all of Anabel’s family lived with a violent and abusive father. “He wouldn’t let us see my friends. We could hardly go out to the patio – the viral girl confesses angrily. He beat us and also my old lady.”
get out of violence
In 2020, before the pandemic, the mother and her daughters gained strength and managed to kick the violent man out of their house. “We posted it throughout the neighborhood with posters and even Crónica came with the cameras and that served as protection for us. Luckily we never saw him again.”
Since then, Anabel, with some saved pesos, started with the first of her dreams: to be a figure skater. While finishing high school, the now model was dedicated to training at the club in the San Agustín neighborhood. However, her economic problems did not allow her to continue with the sport. “My old lady does odd jobs taking care of children or cleaning. We don’t lack anything, but we don’t have too much either. I am still optimistic and I feel that little by little we are going out and improving the situation ”.
The girl from the San Agustín neighborhood does not sit still for a minute. On weekends he starts with his excursions to Buenos Aires. There he looks for locations to take photos for his social networks. Also, many times he goes out in his neighborhood. “I want to show the reality of where I live and that from here you can also go far. It is only necessary that they give us an opportunity to show what we can do”, sums up Anabel very clearly.
Anabel currently does not have a boyfriend. She lives for the dreams of her future that are beginning to come true little by little. “The boys say they see me strange. Or very big nose or that I dress strange. For one reason or another they didn’t give me a ball. For this reason, in general I go out little. In addition, there is the economic issue. In my house there is little money and my mom can’t give me so I can spend it in the bars or nightclubs in Solano”.
And despite the fact that she has all her energy focused on the career that is just beginning, she also dreams of having a boyfriend. “Deep down I am a bit of a Floricienta. And I would like to be with someone, fall in love and all that, “says Anabel.
Anabel’s searches
To complement her future as a model, Sánchez began to study basic notions of clothing design with a neighbor from her neighborhood in Solano. she and she began to see how to put together a mold and the first strokes of how to design a garment In a video that he uploaded to his Instagram, one of the first models he made with pieces of used jeans is seen. It also went viral.
In addition to photography and clothing design, Anabel writes. “I was thinking of leaving you a poem but I prefer to tell you what my mother always tells me. She thinks I’m a reincarnation of some free spirit, an old soul or maybe a black panther that blends in on cold nights or a wolf that sings to the moon for wanting a bit of its brilliance”, says the girl.
And the girl from Solano also finds in her childhood the origin of her present day. “I hated getting dressed, getting my hair done. She lived naked running in the sun. I saw myself very connected with nature since I was little. I wanted to be everything. The earth, the water, the wind, the sun, the clouds, the moon, the fire and especially I wanted to be a cat”.
There goes Anabel with all the weight on her back of what this new world that opened up to her from a simple video uploaded to TikTok means. The images of the brunette that she speaks in simple English but without hesitation are replicated at all times on other networks such as Instagram or Twitter. For the girl, meanwhile, she blows up her phone with messages of support and praise. Still, the model is not satisfied. “My idea is to reach the covers of magazines. Represent the women of the suburbs who experience situations of violence and abuse. And still we go ahead after our dreams, ”she sums up. Solano’s girl smiles and tells her last wish: “I would like to move to Palermo to be closer to the world of fashion.” Nothing seems to stop her.
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