Praise Agbeleze is one of the talented and adorable models with the Exopa Modeling Agency.

She has been with the agency since 2009 and has taken part in major fashion and modeling shows in Ghana. Her great talent in modeling earned her the enviable position of first runner-up of Miss NEWS-ONE, during the August edition of Exopa’s Fashion Café, now dubbed Exopa New Faces.

But like most entertainers, Praise had to struggle to convince her family to accept her dream for fashion and modeling. “From the beginning of my career, my parents didn’t agree because they wanted me to become a doctor. But I was determined to do this. I told my mum if they did not allow me to model then I would sit home and do nothing at all. So she later allowed me to.

“I did not want to become a doctor. I wanted to be a fashion designer and a model. After some time they realized that this is what I really want to do so they allowed me. My mum even encourages me now,” she told NEWS-ONE in an exclusive interview. The beautiful model described herself as “loving person, kind and sweet”.

She said she was ready to do anything for modeling “because modeling is within me. It is my talent. I just love modeling and fashion designing. I am not surprised I found myself in the fashion world.” Currently, her dream is to become a supermodel and gradually she is working toward that. Like many of her friends, she looks up to international model Tyra Banks.

“It is a goal I targeted. I won’t stop until I achieve what I want to achieve in modeling. In five years, I wish that I become one of the recognized models in the world”. Her current exploits in the industry are gradually getting better. “Exopa helps us get jobs. So far it is one of the best. I have been asked to join other agencies but being with Exopa is the best decision I have taken,” she said.

Her triumph at the Exopa Café came to her as a surprise because “I was just having fun. I was even telling the girls which one of us was to going to win. I was really not in to win but just to have fun”. Praise, 21, is from the Volta Region of Ghana and the only daughter of her dad.