Today we’d like to introduce you to Aloeion Queen Dickerson.
Hi Aloeion, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started my career by accident, believe it or not. I was a college student at the University of Memphis, and I was working towards getting a degree in Performing Arts and Psychology. When randomly my college friend, Jarvis, asked me to be in a photoshoot of his. Needless to say, I was highly nervous not about the photoshoot but about myself.
Throughout my entire life, I have had severely bad self-esteem because of my eczema and social anxiety, stemming from being bullied or ostracized at some point by my classmates from elementary school to high school. Therefore, when Jarvis asked me to help him I was excited to help but I was very judgmental of myself because I didn’t consider myself worthy or beautiful enough. But this didn’t hold me back enough, and over time Jarvis and I went on to do other photo shoots together, and eventually, I was able to have fun with it. However, the real impressive part was when I posted Jarvi’s work on social media.
After posting his photos, other photographers in Memphis started reaching out to me to work with them and the more I posted various other photographers’ work the more I kept getting asked to do other shoots. At the time, I didn’t think about making this a career because I still had self-doubt that I wasn’t worthy. But months turned to years and next thing you know around the 2 or 3-year mark, of doing sporadic shoots, I was asked by a photographer when will I take modeling more seriously. I ponder over the thought for months, and what finally made me decide to become a model was (funny enough) my friends and family.
During this 2 to 3 year period, my friends and family have been either bragging about my photoshoots to others or were introducing me as “The Model” to their friends when I was in social gatherings. So over time, I almost felt that my friends and family were conditioning me to think of myself as a model. It took some time for me to convince myself that I could be a model, but not because of my own inner doubts but instead of how people will accept me as a model and not think of my career as some kind of joke. Being a theatre and a psychology major, I was used to people judging my career paths and I didn’t want this to be something for people to judge.
So in the middle stages of my modeling, around the 3 to 4-year mark, I mentally called myself a model but I never said it out loud and I always brushed the word off whenever someone else called me a model. It was until, 2020 that my modeling and overall self-esteem changed forever. In May 2020, I graduated from college, during the start of covid, and then decided to spend one year dedicated to growing and learning as much as I could about modeling.
Within one year, I have had a paid photoshoot, I walked in my first runway show, have networked and collaborated with many photographers within the Tennessee area, and had my first interview (thank you again Memphis Voyager Magazine). Currently, it has been 5 years and I can definitely say I have never loved myself the way I do now. Modeling helped me love myself more and grow more as a woman.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road to being a model was never an easy one. In the beginning, I put my trust in the wrong people, and unfortunately, I had no one at the time that could guide me. I have had a photographer take advantage of my naivety in order to get me naked, and I even have lost money that knows I will never see again [this all happened within my first year starting out]. And because of this, I blamed myself for years thinking I could have stopped the situation if I noticed the signs. This didn’t help with my self-esteem, as you can imagine. But over time, I decided that these were lessons that I had to learn from and overcome.
What I learned, and what I would like to share with other models, is the importance of knowing yourself and sticking to what you know is right for you. Do not go alone to meet a photographer that you never met, especially if it’s their home. I use to travel alone because I had no support, but now I travel with at least 1-2 persons if I am meeting someone new for the first time and I ALWAYS bring someone with me for nude or half nude shoots. Depending on what it is, you don’t have to always do everything a photographer says. When it comes to posing, allow the photographer to guide you, but if they are asking you to do something uncomfortable then truly think about what they are asking, especially if it’s out of your comfort zone, and move according to what your gut is telling you.
Another excellent thing I learned was time management. As a freelance model, I have had to: style myself, be my own MUA, become a creative director, posing director, driver, and hairstylist, while also being on time for the shoot. And in the beginning, it would take me 4-5 hours to get ready, mostly because my makeup process took too long. Now, it doesn’t take me nearly as long to get ready for a shoot, mainly because I’ve been doing it for so long. I now know what I will wear days before my shoot and I’ve even traded in my natural hair for locs.
The last big obstacle that I had to overcome was learning how to market myself knowing that I have put myself into a box by having locs, piercings, and a tattoo. Nowadays, having piercings and tattoos is not much of a big deal, but the problem is if I wish to be commercial and print then I am limiting myself in terms of who I can work with.
Finding where I fit has been a bit of a struggle, but I feel that because of my overall appearance it’s not as difficult because I have a very warm and approachable look.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I specialize in a mostly print and commercial style of work. However, I really want to expand my portfolio into more beauty, fashion, and (oddly enough) hand modeling, and runway work. I have dabbled lightly into my future endeavors, so I have no doubts that it wouldn’t be possible for me.
I hate to sound a tad narcissistic, but I am proud of myself more than the physical work I post. As I have previously mentioned, modeling helped me find confidence in myself and the more I modeled the more my skills grew, which furthermore grew my confidence. So in a small way, I made myself proud by not giving up and always striving for more.
What sets me apart from others is how I choose to market/advertise myself. I always had trouble knowing how to market my brand, but what was clear was how I wished to be seen by the public. I always wanted this girl next door down to earth bad girl with an edge type of vibe, when people see my work. This is why I choose to keep my body piercings in for shoots, so I would have a unique quality about me.
I also love the idea of less being more, which is also why I don’t do a lot of nude or half nude shoots. I don’t want my physical body to be a constant sexual object for others to stare at. I wanted people to see my work, and my body, as tasteful works of art, instead of something people can lust over.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
The most shocking thing about me would have to be my model name. On my social media, I use the name Queen Aloe, or variations of that name, because my actual government name is Aloeion Queen Dickerson.
According to my mother, she came up with my first name, which came from the first movie Coming to American, and my middle name came from my dad, my dad said he wanted people to know they were talking to a Queen when they see me.
Contact Info:
- Email: aloeiondickerson@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_queenaloe/
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/#!/aloeion
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/_queenaloe
- Other: https://linktr.ee/_queenaloe
