From fashion to the UN, Annette Leonowens does it all!
Hometown: Born and raised in Guatemala and moved to Boulder, Colorado at 12.
Favorite hobby: Enjoys traveling, writing and photojournalism. Also enjoys going to art museums and dark room photography.
Tell me about your involvement with the UN.“I applied for an internship in Manhattan. I wrote articles every week to promote non-profit events. My boss asked me to help her with a project. I was the social media person for helping set up International Women’s Entrepreneurship Day. About 153 countries participated.”
What are your passions?Leonowens is passionate about language and wants to understand a lot of different languages. She also loves photography because it enables her to create things that everyone can understand. Finally, she loves what the United Nations stand for and that is to bring people together.
What are you involved in on campus?Leonowens writes for the fashion section of Distraction, she is also a Foote Fellow, participates in Salsa Club and went on a full weekend retreat for IMPACT.
So you have synesthesia, how does that impact your life?“It helps me see patterns, what doesn’t fit and what doesn’t work. It helps with my writing.”
Synesthesia means she associates emotions, words or objects with colors. She once did an activity at a leadership retreat where they had to view connections with words related to leadership traits. Another attribute to having synesthesia is having good memory.
How much is modeling a part of your life?“It’s a part time thing. I was scouted in Denver and I went to New York to meet International scouts. I’m putting all my energy in school.”
She took pictures for Italia Vogue and has a lot of fashion connections. She hopes to use those connections to write for fashion companies.
What’s your favorite class?“Books that Matter. It challenges my entire writing style. It forces me to think differently.”
What’re your plans for the future:“I want to take a gap year to do journalism on location.” She also wants to intern for a magazine in New York and plans on going to graduate school.