Dreams Do Come True
Rachel Ojuromi went from recreating Chanel in Lagos to walking Chanel in Paris
As a coach, I often hear people talk about the ways they hold back their passion, their courage and sometimes even their sense of what is possible. I also hear people talk about how leaders or organisations are holding them back. Perhaps sometimes both are true. We wait until we feel ready. We wait for permission. We wait until someone notices us.
That is what makes Rachel Ojuromi's story so powerful. She didn't wait for the invitation.
Today she is one of the most talked-about names on Instagram, Vogue has called her the coolest girl in Nigeria, and on 5 October 2026 she walked in Chanel's Spring/Summer 2027 show in Paris.
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.” — Anaïs Nin
Courage is rarely one big leap. Most of the time, it is a small, visible choice, repeated: to show up as yourself, to follow what you care about, and to do it before anyone has told you it is allowed. Sometimes it is rewarded in ways nobody could have planned. But it creates movement long before there is any guarantee of recognition.
A passion lived out loud
When Rachel posted her first videos in March 2026, she had no agency, no budget and no invitation. She had a love of fashion, first shaped by her mother, Maria Osayi Ojuromi, who has sold clothes all her life. She had a phone, her best friend, the designer and stylist Debby Fasingha (@flygirl____debby), and the streets of Lagos.
Her style is entirely her own, a mix of her own wardrobe, thrifted finds from Yaba market and young Nigerian designers, with some pieces made by Debby. What makes people stop and look is not only the clothes, but the way she walks through traffic, market stalls and curious passers-by with complete self-assurance and a good dose of attitude.
She did not become visible by leaving her context behind, she became visible by making something of the context she was already in. That is often one of the first places we limit ourselves, assuming we need different circumstances, more resources or a different version of ourselves before we can begin. Rachel started with what she had.
Social media as a stage for the real journey
It is easy to be cynical about social media, often with good reason. Rachel shows another side of it. She uses it to share a passion, not to perform perfection. Her videos are unpolished in the best sense, with the city, the noise and the people around her all part of the story, and followers are invited into the process rather than just shown the result.
Most of us do the opposite. We wait until the idea is approved, the presentation is polished and the risk of looking foolish has been reduced. Rachel made the process visible, and through The Process Africa she uses her platform to show the journeys of other young African creatives too. Authenticity is not only about being brave enough to show yourself. It can also be about using your visibility to help other people become visible.
You can follow Rachel at @giverachelashot and Debby at @flygirl____debby.
When courage meets opportunity
The turning point came with a daring idea. Chanel had presented its Métiers d'Art 2026 collection by Matthieu Blazy in a New York subway station. Rachel and Debby recreated it in Lagos using nothing but thrifted, second-hand clothes, staging the looks across the city, including the Red Line rail overpass in Yaba, with photographer Odey Ikpa. It was not a copy, it was a confident answer, made on their own terms.
The series was picked up by Chanel's Creative Director, Matthieu Blazy (@matthieu_blazy) himself left a single word under the video: “Everything.” Agencies in New York, Paris and London followed. On 5 October 2026, Rachel made her runway debut at Chanel's Spring/Summer 2027 show at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Afterwards, she dedicated the moment to the two people who had been there from the start, her mother and Debby, remembering how Debby had made clothes from thrifted pieces when they could not afford anything else.
There was certainly luck in the timing. But luck found something that was already in motion. Paris did not create Rachel's presence, it recognised it. She built a stage of her own first, and the bigger one followed.
What makes courage last
It is tempting to read this as a fairy tale. I think it is more useful to read it as a pattern. Rachel was driven by genuine interest rather than a plan to be discovered, and she worked from what she naturally does well, her eye, her humour and her presence on camera.
Her journey is also a good illustration of Self-Determination Theory, Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's work on what sustains motivation over time. There is autonomy, in choosing her own expression without waiting for permission. There is competence, built video by video. And there is relatedness, in creating alongside Debby and lifting other creatives with her. When those three come together, effort stops feeling like a performance and starts feeling like a direction.
Rachel has described the Lagos girl as someone “quietly doing the work until the world catches up.” That may be one of the most honest definitions of courage I have come across.
Not the absence of doubt, but the decision to keep going in plain sight while the outcome is still uncertain.
Build your own runway
Most of us will never walk for Chanel. That is not the point. Many of us, in our organisations and careers, are still waiting for someone to hand us the stage before we step onto it.
Sometimes we are genuinely constrained. But often it looks more ordinary: holding back a thought in a meeting, waiting until an idea is more polished, or assuming someone more senior needs to give us permission.
Rachel's story suggests a few things worth taking with us. Start with what you have, where you are, because waiting for perfect conditions can become a very effective way of never starting. Keep the parts of yourself that make your contribution yours, rather than editing them out to fit someone else's idea of success, something I see people struggle with often in coaching. Let people see the becoming, not only the finished version. And find your co-conspirator, because courage is easier together. It says a lot that Debby was one of the two people Rachel thanked when she reached Paris.
So here is a gentle encouragement. Think of one thing you care about enough to do even when nobody is watching yet, and take one small, visible step with it this month. Be a little more daring than feels comfortable. Courage is not always rewarded straight away, but it is rarely wasted.
Leave a runway for someone else
This is the leadership lesson I find most interesting in Rachel's story. Authentic leadership is not only about having the courage to build your own runway. It is also about noticing the people who are building theirs: the colleague experimenting with a new idea, the one doing excellent work without making much noise, the one with a different way of solving a problem but not yet the confidence to put it forward.
If we only notice people once they are polished and impossible to overlook, we are not creating opportunities, we are simply recognising the people who managed to create them for themselves. Leadership can mean seeing potential earlier, and giving someone a little more room than they have asked for, long before Paris calls.
Charlotte Søndergaard, Authentic Leaders DK
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