Noticing that she worked more shows in the summer and was barely getting booked in the winter, Ogilvie, spoke to her agent. “I was told they don’t want Black girls as much for the winter season. It wasn’t explicit racism I was experiencing,” Ogilvie recalls. “It was more a case of some micro-aggressions that accumulated under the pretense of ’creative vision’, which is hard to call out.”

While this often happens in the case of shows and editorial gigs, it does also occur with commercial work. On one occasion, a makeup artist expected Lana to bring her own supply of various shades of base makeup, but on the flip side, provided a display for white models.

Some clients anticipated she would bring her own wigs. In another instance, Ogilvie recalls receiving a call from her agency after a client called to complain, saying her hair was “difficult.” “My hair isn’t difficult,” she says, “it’s hair, it’s  inanimate. The thing is, it’s Black hair and they hired someone inadequate for the job,” she continues.

Ogilvie chooses not to buy from the designers for whom she went through those experiences. “They don’t represent me,” she tells us. “If you can’t have someone who looks like me in your advertising or walking your runway, you aren’t for me.” Once she signed with CoverGirl, she decided to stop doing shows.

Contrary to popular belief, being chosen to be the face of CoverGirl was not a snap decision. It was a lengthy process filled with months of test photography, ads and focus groups, but it was well worth it. “It was an amazing opportunity,” she says. “One of the biggest things I’ve done in my career.”