Meet Gap’s superstar Brit model
The new face of Gap and one half of the UK’S most influential young couple, Maya Jama talks to Bethan Holt
Maya Jama is at the hairdressers. It is the day before the National Television Awards, so she is getting a blow-dry. But, hang on, the day before? How will her freshly zhuzhed ’do survive a night of being slept on and still look red carpet ready?
“I actually prefer it that way, I always get my hair done the day before a big event,” Jama explains with all the knowing sass of a seasoned professional.
Sure enough, the next evening she is photographed looking like the epitome of a classic Hollywood siren; her long, dark hair sweeps down her shoulders and she is wearing a custom-made pink, feather-adorned gown. It’s this very modern mix of classic glamour and unaffected candour which makes 23-year-old Jama one of the most exciting names to watch in 2018.
She is a TV presenter, mental health campaigner, the new face of Gap and – with her boyfriend of three years, the grime and hip-hop artist Stormzy – one half of Britain’s youngest influential couple right now. Think David and Victoria Beckham for millennials.
The pair have a huge social media following (Jama 448,000 on Instagram at the last count, and Stormzy 1.6 million) and regularly thrill fans with down-to-earth conversations with each other on social media accounts that give genuine insight into their real lives – including one exchange in which Jama asked her boyfriend to bring her an order of fast food.
But they also know how to mix with a more conventional crowd too. They were photographed last month at a cocktail party thrown by Idris Elba in central London. While, last year, Stormzy was seen alongside Prince Harry at the Wellchild Awards and has since offered to provide “a little acoustic” at his May wedding to Meghan Markle.
Earlier this month, British Vogue credited the pair with redefining the UK’S cultural currency. Little wonder, during last year’s general election, Stormzy (real name Michael Omari) – who hails from south London and has BBC and MOBO awards and performances alongside Kanye West to his name – was credited with significantly swaying the youth vote after he came out in support of Jeremy Corbyn.
Over the past few weeks, Jama has celebrated major career wins herself, having just signed up for her “dream job” – hosting her own show on BBC Radio 1 on Saturday mornings, and co-hosting with Scott Mills on a Friday.
She is also starring in her first campaign for a major fashion brand in Gap’s latest initiative, Logo Remix. It sees the American fashion giant reimagine its own iconic emblem via a cast of rising stars, who it wants to start new cultural conversations – while wearing new versions of the retailer’s famous sweatshirt. “There’s definitely pictures of me wearing those jumpers and T-shirts when I was little,” Jama laughs. “Gap has been around for so long but managed to stay cool. It’s a brand for everyone – I can see my mum and my brother wearing it.”
It doesn’t take long to work out why Jama was chosen to be a part of a project aimed at celebrating selfexpression and refreshing attitudes. It goes without saying that she is beautiful. But in a world where fame is often achieved by being the offspring of famous parents, Jama has defied the odds to succeed.
She was born in Bristol to a Swedish mother and Somali father. Although she remembers happy times from her childhood – “I’d perform in the front room and make my family buy fake tickets I’d made out of paper”– it was overshadowed by her dad being in and out of prison. When she was 16, Jama’s then-boyfriend was murdered.
After that, she moved to London to pursue her ambition of becoming an actress. “My mum just said that it didn’t matter if it didn’t work out, I could always come home. When you’re from a smaller city, it feels like London is a place where all your dreams can come true.”
She worked in Urban Outfitters (where she still loves to shop now for her day-to-day uniform of tracksuits) and as a runner at a TV production company. During her lunch breaks, they let her use the cameras to make Youtube videos, in which she shared relationship and life advice with her growing audience.
Eventually, her potential as a presenter was spotted and she was signed to London-based community radio station Rinse FM, going on to co-present shows on 4Music and ITV2. Next up is Revolution – a new extreme sports series alongside Jackass star Steve O – to air soon on Sky One.
Jama says that she and Stormzy – whom she met at a music festival in 2014 – “weren’t going to do any press together, but you can’t say no to Vogue!”. He has a number of American tour dates coming up and Jama has just secured a visa to work in the US, having fallen in love with New York while shooting for Gap.
It was Jama’s commitment to speaking out about mental health which truly made her the perfect fit for the brand. In the song Lay Me Bare, released last year, Stormzy explored his struggles with depression: “Like man I get low sometimes… Sitting in my house with tears in my face” he sings.
Jama has met her boyfriend’s open
‘I want to be open about my truth. If that could help someone, that’s great’
attitude to his struggles with a similar frankness. She has made a documentary called When Dad Kills: Murderer in the Family about her own experiences and those of children whose fathers are in prison or addicts. Last year, she also hosted the world’s biggest mental health lesson at Hackney Empire. “Growing up, I feel like I never really heard the people that I looked up to talk about what they had gone through in the past,” she says. “You would assume they had a perfect life. [But] I want to be honest about my truth. If by any little chance that could help someone who follows me, who is going through something, then that’s great.”
Whether it’s her own family issues or the mental health of those closest to her, Jama admits that being vocal about difficult times is not always easy. “I can go through waves of it where I think, ‘no, I want to keep things personal’ and other times I think, ‘I didn’t go through that for no reason’. I can help people by talking about those experiences.”
An entire generation would probably agree.