Strut, smile, slay, serve

Prerna Massey showed up on all our feeds with her terrace #OOTD Reels. Now, she's on billboards and runways. What's her secret?

- Christalle Fernandes

You're too skinny." "Your're so dark." "You're too short to be a model.

Prerna Massey had heard these statements enough times in her childhood. So, when she started getting the same kind of comments on her Reels in December 2024, it didn't faze her. The hate stemmed from the fact that she didn't exactly belong. Massey's #OOTDs were shot on her terrace in Saket in Delhi - peeling grey walls, low-rent neighbourhood in the background.

Massey, now 26, continued shooting her transition videos: High Fashion Look on an Indian Girl, Latina Look on an Indian Girl, Sketch Design versus Real Look. "My aim was to show that even a normal Indian terrace can be an aesthetic backdrop, if you're confident in your style," she recalls.

But about a year ago, fate flipped the script. For every 10 hate comments, there was a compliment: "You look like Tyla, OMG!" "You're our Indian Kendall Jenner". The Reels went viral. Massey got collab requests, brand deals, invitations to model clothes. In the last year, she's been on billboards for Mac makeup, modelled for H&M, and won Elle's Fashion Influencer of the Year. Everyone's GRWM-ing on the 'gram. So why did her vids inspire us to like, save and follow?