Dutch | Indonesian
I identify as mixed-race, straight and I’m spiritual but not religious. My dad is from Indonesia (The Mollucan) and my mum is from Holland. I grew up in a small town in the north of The Netherlands. My parents embraced each other's culture. Openness, acceptance, honesty and growth have made sure that they are still together and luckily my brother and I were raised with the best of both cultures. I think I was 7 or 8 when I first began to understand I was of mixed ethnicity. I connect the most with my Indonesian roots. I embrace the strong connection that we have as a family, I embrace our beautiful traditions and I love the delicious Indonesian food. I absolutely think there are still bias attitudes towards mixed-race people. I see people struggle daily in things like mixed-race marriages, relationships, children or finding a suitable job. I was living in Iceland back in 2001. A week after the terrorist attack on 9/11 I flew back to Iceland after a family visit in The Netherlands. I was the only person on the plane with a mixed-race appearance and when we landed at the airport, the security were much more strict than usual. I was taken by customs for a more rigorous check and had to hand in my passport. It took well over an hour before they told me I was released from customs. A very positive experience started last year when I started working as a professional model. Ever since I have gotten a lot of modeling gigs because according to clients I have an appearance a lot of people can truly identify themselves with. I embrace the fact that I’m mixed-race and I always try to connect with other races from a positive perspective by being open and honest about my culture and by showing sincere interest in different cultures because I believe that we can learn a lot from other people coming from different backgrounds. People are becoming more open to diversity and I love and support that because only then the world will get a much happier place for everyone. If I were to be born again I wouldn’t change a thing because all the challenges made me who I am today.
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