CANADA: Apart from working as an I.T Project Lead in healthcare, Meenal Drockz makes sure that she suffices all her other passions in her side hustle. Meenal runs an Online one-one coaching program for influencers, pageant candidates, and business analysts. Not only that, she calls likes to call herself a weekend model/actor as she takes on several projects in the field. Meenal aces the art of juggling between her work life and her hobbies as not only does it excite her, but also allows her to learn what different industries have to offer.
Miss Asia BC Canada 20-21 and former Miss India Seattle, Meenal, took the initiative to stop height criteria in the world of modeling and dating through her campaign ‘Say No To Heightism’. Meenal did her Masters’s degree in New York and established a corporate career in the USA. Meenal was born and brought up in Mumbai, India, and currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.
Driving force and breaking the stigma around height in modeling
Meenal was known as a geek in school and was bullied for not being fashionable. She was determined to break the perception that nerds and beauty don’t go together and prove it otherwise. Hence, after completing her studies, she focused on self-grooming and auditioned for several international runway shows. That is when she realized that being tall was one of the most important key factors in the world of modeling. But she wanted to break that convention, so she auditioned for shows in spite of having an average height. Her amazing catwalk skills paved her way for the New York Fashion Week, LA fashion week & North American Fashion week.
She also shed light on how due to the height criteria in the world of Pageant and modeling, many get into depression or go through surgeries. Through her campaign, she urges all international level pageants and runway shows to do away with this criterion of having a certain height to be able to model. She also insists that rejecting potential matches in the dating world due to the height factor should stop and rather more weightage should be given to their personality and nature.
She also talks about the fact that designers showcase clothing on taller models which are misleading as target customers could be shorter too. She recommends that designers should showcase garments on models of all shapes and sizes so that customers get a fair idea of how the clothing would look on them.
One of the reasons she continued with modeling/acting with her corporate career was so that she could set an example for everyone that you can do everything you want if you know how to prioritize your time. She added that the corporate lifestyle puts people in a loop of the 9 – 5 am job, giving them less or no time for other skills. She says that time management is a skill that we all are born with but we don’t use it. We need to prioritize our work lifetime, our family time, and our me time, and that me-time should be dedicated to living our dream.
Photo Credit: Meenal Drockz
‘Building positive mindset’
One of the global issues in society that Meenal thinks needs attention is ‘Building Positive Mindset.’ She noticed that most of us go through similar issues in life which can cause stress and impact our mental health. To make a difference, Meenal posts daily inspirations on social media through her own life experiences on how to live life with a positive mindset and how to let go of experiences that cause negativity
A word for the budding models
I would like to advise all artists and models to not give up just because they have faced too many failures as this world is competitive. In fact, the more failures we get, the more lessons we learn and we are then prepared to get massive success. She says that if you think you are talented, you can convince anyone.
Her struggle with height restrictions in the modeling industry has led her to fight the battle for the rest of the tribe, she added that she would like to get support for her campaign from people all over the world so that we all can stop asking height-related questions and let every talented individual showcase their true potential.
