Amber Rose is one of those (many) fantastic women, whose apparent contradictions make her the unlikeliest of role models.
Brought up in poverty, Rose became a stripper at 15, only to be thrown onto the international stage when she began a relationship with rapper Kanye West after they met on the set of a music video.
The pair were in a high-profile relationship between 2008 to 2010 and although since then she has been married (and divorced, to Wiz Khalifa, with whom she has a child called Sebastian), and is currently in a relationship with another rapper, called 21 Savage, she still cites the ending of their relationship as an extremely important time in her life.
Now Rose is most known for a distinct kind of feminist activism that sees her hosting 'Slut Walks' and posing naked from the waist down, showing off an unwaxed bikini line.
However, back in 2010 she was Kanye's shaven-headed stripper girlfriend and she had to work hard to ensure her 15 minutes of fame didn't see her back home, dancing on the small stage, like she had before.
The 33 year-old spoke on Complex's show Everyday Struggle, about the difficulties she found being in the public eye, having just ended an incredibly important relationship and still being broke.
She told the hosts that, 'We weren't married, he didn't owe me s***, and I had to figure out what I was gonna do with the fame at that time.'
She thought to herself at the time:
I can't go back to Philly, I'm not going to be a dancer again, you know I met a lot of great people during this time when I was with homeboy [West] years ago. I'm just gonna take the steps and find out how to be an entrepreneur and start my own businesses and companies, and that's what I did.
By creating a brand, Rose has successfully leveraged a book deal, a clothes line as well as acting jobs, 'The only thing that I got from him was fame, and fame don't get you no f***ing money, period.'
Despite being known as his ex-girlfriend, she also resisted the option of overtly using West's name to support herself, she told the show:
'I could've got a reality show just off the fact that I was his girlfriend, I could've wrote a book just off the fact that I was his girlfriend…But I'm a real ass b****, I'm gonna take the high road, I'm gon' work my ass off, and I'm gonna get everything that I'm gonna get on my own, so nobody can be like, 'Yo I gave her that.'
Not that Rose is afraid to call West out... Back in January last year, West attempted to slut-shame Rose by Tweeting her ex-husband about being bound to 'a stripper' for 18 years, due to their son, Sebastian.
'4th you let a stripper trap you,' West, 38-years-old, wrote.
'5th I know you mad every time you look at your child that this girl got you for 18 years.'
And this wasn't the first time, back in 2015 the rapper infamously suggested Rose was dirty, 'It's very hard for a woman to want to be with someone that's with Amber Rose. … I had to take 30 showers before I got with Kim.'
His mentioning of Rose's son, however, was the last straw and she shamed West for all to see on the basis of his sexual preferences: 'Awww @kanyewest are u mad I'm not around to play in ur a--hole anymore? #FingersInTheBootyAssBitch,' she tweeted.
'Lol @kanyewest Now u wanna delete ur tweets cuz Muva has arrived? #TwitterFingers #UrGettingBodiedByAStripperN—a.'
We don't condone outing someone's private life in this way, but it's obvious she was publicly provoked by the controversial rapper.
People continually attempt to demean Rose, but she repeatedly fights back, at times delivering powerful messages of freedom of sexual expression and demanding respect.
Daisy Murray is the Digital Fashion Editor at ELLE UK, spotlighting emerging designers, sustainable shopping, and celebrity style. Since joining in 2016 as an editorial intern, Daisy has run the gamut of fashion journalism - interviewing Molly Goddard backstage at London Fashion Week, investigating the power of androgynous dressing and celebrating the joys of vintage shopping.
