10 Year Old Nigerian Fashion Designer Debuts Clothes At New York Fashion Show To Combat Bullying

                  

Ify Egypt Ufele is a 5th grader who turned her negative bullying experience into a positive for herself and for other curvy little girls. Egypt “Ify” Ufele is fusing her African heritage with American styles to fight bullying.

People: A 10-year-old fashion designer is using her experience as a victim of bullying to kickstart her career.

Egypt Ufele, who goes by “Ify,” tells Today that she was repeatedly picked on for her size at her grade school in Queens, New York.
“I was bullied and they called me all kinds of names,” she says. “One time I got stabbed with a pencil.”

But instead of letting it get her down, Ufele started hand-sewing clothes for her dolls and eventually learned to use a sewing machine to make clothes for all body types, Ufele’s grandmother says.

                                       

                

                       

                        

Now Ufele has become the only child designer to dress curvy models at New York Fashion Week. According to her website, Ufele’s designs, Chubiiline, are about “bringing Africa to American, one design at a time.”