Betty Sim

Naomi Ruth Sims, born March 30, 1948, was an American model, businesswoman, and author, widely recognized as one of the first African-American supermodels. She broke barriers by being the first Black model to grace the covers of Ladies' Home Journal and Life magazine. Sims' early life in Mississippi and later Pittsburgh was marked by challenges, including her parents' divorce and being placed in foster care, where she faced ostracism due to her height. Despite initial setbacks due to racial prejudice in the fashion industry, Sims pursued her modeling career, eventually securing a breakthrough with a photograph in The New York Times. This led to national recognition, including a prominent AT&T campaign, and established her as a successful model in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She appeared in major fashion publications and collaborated with renowned photographers. Sims later leveraged her success to launch a beauty business, creating a popular wig line and expanding into a multimillion-dollar enterprise. She also authored several books on modeling, health, and beauty, and contributed an advice column for teenagers. Sims passed away on August 1, 2009, after battling breast cancer.

Naomi Sims' journey into modeling began after she received a scholarship to the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her initial attempts to secure work through established agencies were met with resistance due to her skin color. Undeterred, Sims bypassed traditional routes and approached photographers directly. A significant turning point came when Gösta Peterson photographed her for The New York Times' August 1967 fashion supplement. Despite this initial success, she continued to face difficulties. She then collaborated with Wilhelmina Cooper, who was starting her own agency, by sending out copies of the Times supplement to advertising agencies and providing Cooper's contact information, with Cooper receiving a commission for any resulting work. Within a year, Sims was earning a substantial income. Her career was further propelled by a national television campaign for AT&T, designed by Bill Blass. Sims herself noted that this campaign was instrumental in making her face known, leading to increased demand for her services.

By her late teens, Naomi Sims had become one of the first highly successful Black models, achieving international recognition throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her image appeared in prominent fashion magazines such as Vogue, Vogue Italia, and Cosmopolitan. She worked with celebrated photographers including Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. The New York Times acknowledged her appearance on the cover of Ladies' Home Journal in November 1968 as a pivotal moment for the "Black is beautiful" movement. Her appearance on the cover of Life magazine in October 1969 made her the first African-American model to achieve this. These iconic images were later featured in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1973, Sims retired from modeling to establish her own business, focusing on a successful wig collection designed to emulate the texture of straightened Black hair. This venture evolved into a multimillion-dollar beauty empire and included the publication of at least five books related to modeling and beauty.

Naomi Sims married art dealer Michael Findlay in August 1973, an interracial union that garnered attention at the time. The couple, who had both been featured separately in Vogue prior to their marriage, had one son, Bob. Their marriage concluded in divorce in 1991. Sims was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder. She passed away on August 1, 2009, at the age of 61, from breast cancer in Newark, New Jersey. Her legacy extends beyond her modeling career; she authored books on health, beauty, and success, including "All About Health and Beauty for the Black Woman," and maintained an advice column for teenagers. Her contributions as a groundbreaking model and astute businesswoman left a lasting impact on the fashion and beauty industries.

“It helped me more than anything else because it showed my face. After it was aired, people wanted to find out about me and use me.”