Lais Ribeiro on How Gisele Bündchen Shaped Her Career & the Unexpected Way She Started Modeling

Lais Ribeiro didn’t set out to become a model but, as she told us for SheKnows’ Sustainability Issue, everything fell into place when she was a teenager, allowing her to embark on a successful career walking for brands like Victoria’s Secret, Givenchy, and Gucci.

“I never knew I wanted to be a model, I was going to school to be a nurse,” Ribeiro told us of her career beginnings in a sit-down video interview to accompany her cover story. “Everything worked well. And I was in the right time, on the right spot. It never went through my mind until, you know, I had the opportunity.”

As Ribeiro told SheKnows’ Giovana Gelhoren in our cover story, Ribeiro’s career began when she was 18 years old and living in her native Brazil, the same year she became a mom to her now-15-year-old son Alexandre.

.@Lalaribeiro16 champions sustainability and philanthropy. Our digital issue highlights her commitment to environmental and social causes, featuring a photoshoot in her own garden. Explore her journey to a more sustainable future. 🌿📸 Read more here: https://t.co/zJVMq7zTD5pic.twitter.com/uADjBRrITO

— SheKnows (@SheKnows) April 10, 2024

It’s no surprise that one of her major influences was fellow Brazilian Gisele Bündchen. “My favorite model growing up, of course, [was] Giselle because she’s one of the biggest and she’s Brazilian as well,” Ribeiro tells us. “I always liked the way she did things, how professional she was, and very connected to nature. So I looked up to her to her because of that.”

Ribeiro’s own connection to nature has inspired some of her advocacy work with environmental preservation, which she speaks about at length in our Sustainability Issue. But she work extends to social activism as well.

In 2020, Ribeiro hosted Born to Fashion, a Brazilian reality show that follows transgender models as they attempt to enter the fashion industry. “Doing that, during a month of filming, and being close to them, and seeing how painful [what] they have to go through [is], and their experiences. I think it touched me a lot. I think it was the most important job that I have done until now,” Ribeiro says.

Outside of modeling, Ribeiro has faced her own challenges as a young mother of a son who was diagnosed with autism when he was 5.

“For me, it was a shock,” she says of the diagnosis. “I know a lot of parents are in denial, but you have to snap out of it and really focus on what your kid needs, educate yourself, educate the people that are around you.”

“And gloves on, because it is a fight to fight ignorant people.”

Before you go, click to see celebrity parents who have opened up about raising kids with autism.