Breaking Barriers as a Muslim Model | America Inside Out With Katie Couric

I went to meet up with model Halima Aden. She's walked in Kanye's fashion shows, is the face of Rihanna's makeup line, has graced the covers of fashion magazines, and has even fronted an American Eagle campaign. We're going to get a manicure today, how about that? I am very excited because I heard you fight. Here's to the male fighters of America!

I caught up with Halima in New York just after a photo shoot for her sixth magazine cover this year. I mean, you must be touching yourself, are you?

Yeah, I went from exactly a year ago where I could never flip through a magazine and see anyone who would dress like me to now a magazine cover. It's phenomenal, right? It is because I never got to grow up and feel represented, and I never saw anybody who looks like me in high fashion. So, it's pretty surreal to be that person for a lot of little girls. Now, I get girls from small towns in Wisconsin and all these different little towns that stop modeling and fashion, and especially high-fashion, was so out of reach for them.

Maybe that's because Halima is a Midwestern girl herself. She lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota. She doesn't take any of her good fortune for granted. She was born in a refugee camp after her mother fled a brutal civil war in Somalia.

One day, it was like this. They were all together, and you know the village, everybody ran the other way. Everyone scattered, but she headed to a refugee camp in Kenya. She didn't have family; that must have been so terrifying. It's brave, you know? I can't even imagine how I was feeling. I was asked to leave, you know, just up and go.

As our nation debates whether we should make Muslim refugees welcome, Halima has been outspoken about her own family's experience.

So, tell me about the journey to America. What do you remember?

There was so much fighting. People don't understand how long it really takes. It took my family from when I was born in '97 to 2005. Wow, so that's eight years. Eight years, and a lot of the refugees never make it to a developed country. They're not as fortunate as my family to come to the United States. That's rare.

After the Ayden's moved to St. Cloud, Halima thrived. She became the first Muslim homecoming queen in her high school. She was a contestant in the Miss Minnesota beauty pageant when she was recruited by a modeling agency.

I'm living the American dream; that's why you came here. I think it takes more time, and it's also my responsibility as a Muslim to get out of my comfort zone and give people the opportunity to get to know me.

And you are doing all you can to change the narrative, to show a different kind of Muslim story.

The stories that really aren't told very much in this country, they're not, you know? But look at your Muslim lawyers and teachers and people in your community. It's not always like the model or, you know, but it's still incredible stories, you know? People who came to this country with nothing and were able to build their lives.

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