Model From Minnesota Now An Ambassador For UNICEF

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Somali-American model Halima Aden was the first to wear a hijab on the cover of "Vogue" magazine, and now the model who got her start in St. Cloud is an ambassador for UNICEF.

The 20-year-old appeared Monday on CBS This Morning to speak about working with UNICEF to help the world's most vulnerable children. During the interview, she said being an ambassador for the international organization is her proudest accomplishment to date.

"My mom can pick up a Vogue magazine and she doesn't really understand, but when I told her about UNICEF, she started crying, you know," Aden said on CBS This Morning. "When I told her that news, it was like the first time in my modeling career that she was really, truly proud of me."

Aden grew up in a refugee camp in Kenya. When she was six, her family moved to the United States and settled in St. Cloud.

She got her start in modeling after she competed in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant, in which she was the first contestant to compete fully covered.

Not long after, she was walking prestigious shows at New York Fashion Week and gracing the cover of "Vogue Arabia" in a hijab.

Aden is currently on the cover of the July issue of "Teen Vogue." As part of the cover story, the magazine filmed her traveling back to Kakuma, the refugee camp where she grew up.

"It wasn't easy," Aden told CBS This Morning. "Like it took my family years to go through the vetting process to get into the [U.S.], but I feel like, 'OK, I got here. Now what am I going to do with my life? How can I make sure that I'm empowering the girls that will never have that opportunity that I did?'"