Premium celebrity, fashion and lifestyle magazine Glitz Africa Magazine, reveals Nigeria’s award-winning TV Host, Producer, Business & News Anchor and Model Idia Aisien as its digital cover personality.
For our first exclusive digital cover story, Idia takes us on a journey on how far she has come. She revealed to Glitz Africa that her name ‘Idia’ means ‘queen’ and her last name means ‘you cannot be denied.’ “I was named after a historic Benin Queen who went to war on behalf of her son, King Esigie, and the Benin Kingdom. Queen Idia was a warrior – it makes me so proud of my name,” she said.
Being half Cameroonian, the one thing she finds interesting about her Cameroonian descent is her mother. “My mother has a very elegant, peaceful and kindhearted air about her. I believe the sweet and more compassionate side of me is from Cameroon, while the warrior is Nigerian,” she said with pride.
When asked about her favourite memories while growing up, she said it was growing up with all my siblings. “Now everyone’s married. I remember wanting to share a room with my sisters so bad, and also fighting with my brothers over literally everything and anything. My brother and I would keep a huge space on the bed for Jesus, Mary and God – we were so cute! Haha!”
Talking of her parents, she said, “My father is from Benin city, Edo state and my mother is from Yaoundé, Cameroon. They are my role models because they are very industrious and very kind. The older I get, the more I appreciate the impact that they’ve had in my life.”
For Idia, she has always dreamt of being a model, being on billboards and reporting the news on television, right from when she was 12 years old. Now she dreams of producing and hosting her own show about the developments taking place across the African continent. “My favourite moment as a model was walking for a charity fashion show for the UNICEF. The show raised a lot of money as they auctioned all the dresses we wore. It felt amazing to be able to combine two things I love – fashion and philanthropy.”
Being a TV personality was also something she always wanted to be. “I grew up extremely shy and I really admired people I would see on television because they were so confident and outspoken. I’ve had to fight very hard to overcome being shy by constantly putting myself out there.”
When asked if she would ever venture into acting, she replied, “I always used to say I would never act, but this year I have tried so many new things…so I would never say never anymore!”
Idia Aisien lives by two golden rules. “The first is, “Never wait for anyone to help you be successful, when you are successful people will help you,” and the second is, “Forget all the reasons why it won’t work and focus on the one reason why it will.”
Apart from fulfilling her dreams of being on TV and on billboards, Idia aspires to help make the world a better place. She informed us, “I have officially launched an initiative called The International Development initiative in Africa, which is a platform to visually tell the stories of individuals, groups or organisations that are making a difference in their respective fields to grow the continent. I hope that through those stories, we can spur more action and encourage people, locally and abroad, to volunteer, partner and invest in making Africa better.”
Glitz Africa was honoured to have Idia Aisien to co-host the 2018 edition of the annual Glitz Style Awards with Ghanaian designer Elikem the Tailor this September at the Movenpick Ambassador Hotel.
You can subscribe to the magazine online via our website (glitzafrica.com), or send an email to subscription@glitzafrica.com or call 050 158 1264.
Glitz Africa Magazine – Your Lifestyle Companion
Credits:
Photography: Ken Ansah (@ansahkenphotography)
Clothes provided by: Nadrey Laurent
Styled by: Joey (@urstailorstailor.official)
Makeup: @dollydoll_gh
