Shanina Shaik, an Australian model of Pakistani, Saudi and Lithuanian ancestry will be seen on Harper’s Bazaar Arabia’s first cover of the New Year. The magazine also features a detailed interview with the supermodel. Shaik reveals how she always had trouble making a big appearance in the fashion world due to her distinctive look. “They said I was never going to be a high-fashion model and that I’d never do runways,” she told Harper’s Bazaar Arabia. “Agents, clients… they all told me the same thing. I would go to castings and never get the jobs that I wanted, and it really affected me, especially as so much of it was because I look so mixed.” She recalls that she used to be turned down when she went for castings just because of her skin colour. As she talks about the troubles she had faced in finding gigs, she also reveals that she might finally visit her dad’s home country Saudi Arabia this year; “I also have a very good feeling that 2020 is the year I finally get to go to Saudi.”