Growing up in the south of Johannesburg, Gina Athans was a role-model student, headgirl and academic high achiever, whose own model of pulchritude with a purpose was Princess Diana. Then came Gina’s turn to wear the crown.
She entered the Miss South Africa Teen pageant, won, and was spotted by an international modelling agent who offered her a contract in Paris. But Gina was only 17, and dutifully, she chose to finish school first.
As a fashion model, she graced the runway and the covers of glossy magazines, married young, divorced young, and decided, still young, that her role in life was to be something more than a model.
Back in her home country, Gina has gone from PR entrepreneur to the founder of a charitable foundation that strives to fight hunger and build a better future for South Africa’s children.
She sat down with Ruda for a candid chat about overcoming obstacles and the art of reinventing yourself on the path to making your dreams come true.
Transcript:
R: Hello, and a very warm welcome to another session of The Change Exchange. My guest today, Gina Athans, you may know as the cover girl and the FHM, one of the sexiest women, etc., etc., but that’s in the past and we will talk about that. Today, she’s an entrepreneur and a humanitarian. But let’s just go back a bit. I mean, as I said, that international face, etc. How did you grow up? What did you dream of when you were at school?
G: I think at school I was always the over-achiever from a young age. I was head girl, number one academic student, always wanting to be the best at whatever it is that I do. It wasn’t really a goal of mine to be a renowned model or an actress or anything like that. But I think anything that I put my mind to, I always had to be the best. So my parents taught me that if you’re going to do something, always make sure that you do it full-heartedly instead of just half-heartedly. And I think that contributed to success later in life.
R: But what did you envisage yourself to be?
G: I wanted to be a role model, and I think whatever I’ve done, even today, I always want to be someone that people look up to and say wow, she’s made a difference. Wow, she’s inspirational. So whatever, even in the modelling industry, when I entered Miss South Africa Teen, I just thought it was the first pageant I ever entered, I never entered pageants before that … And when I won, I kind of thought oh my word, this is an amazing platform, I can do so much. So as a little girl, I remember I had to do a speech in standard 1, and they did ask me what is it that you want to do. And I was like, oh, I want to be someone like Princess Diana. I wanted to be known, but for something really, really good. And I think with the modelling industry, even though I graced the covers for FHM and Sports Illustrated and Cosmo and so forth, I always try to keep a positive name, so people kind of knew me in the industry of the good girl, I never drank, I never smoked, I kind of always wanted to use whatever form it is to inspire other girls.
R: Was that difficult? Because it must have been not the norm. You then ended … You moved to Paris at the age of 17?
G: I first finished school. I was scouted by a guy called Bruno Jermaine, he was the head booker that discovered Giselle Bundchen, and when I saw me he was like, ah, you should come to Paris and I was like I have to finish school first. So I finished school and then moved to Paris. You know, being surrounded by a lot of alcohol and a party life and such, is one thing, but I think there are a lot of models, and one thing that sets other models apart from other models, is that it doesn’t become your life. At the end of the day you have to be professional. You still have to rock up at 04:00 or 05:00 in the morning for call time, looking great. Having had a good night’s rest. It shows when you have partied the whole night. Yes, I think there are some extreme cases where a lot of successful girls do party hard, because it can become a very lonely life, so they try and fill the void through escaping, using different substances. That was never really the difficult part for me in the industry. It was never an effort not to drink, it was never an effort not to use drugs. I kind of never gave into peer pressure, even from a young age at school.
R: And is that because of your home life? Because of what your family gave you?
G: I think I have to say … Ja, I would probably owe that to my parents, my mom and my dad … They made me believe that I am unique. And what my mom also taught, that always to be a lady in whichever circumstance, you know, that I’m put in or challenged or faced with in life. Always remain a lady. You only have your name, and once that name is thrown away, it’s very difficult to get it back. So I kind-of guess that’s stuck in the back of my mind that it’s not very lady-like to kind of lose control and really let go and get drunk and get off your face and so forth.
R: And as you say, once you lose your reputation … It is lost forever!
G: And at every stage in my life my reputation was kind of challenged at times, but I think the media kind of enjoy sensationalism, which was never the case. I have been accused of drugs and drinking and I have never touched it, so … And it can tarnish …
R: It’s hard to live with that intense spotlight that everything you do is blown up and out there.
G: 100%. I kind of … I was nominated for a Woman of the Year Award for a lot of things that I did, charitable causes and so forth, and I remember that year that I was nominated … I had just gotten back from abroad, and I was very jetlagged and I went to an event and there was a little stone, a pebble, in my shoe and I took my shoe off to get the pebble out of my shoe, and next, The Sunday Times wrote I took my shoes off at the party. So things can be so misinterpreted and …
R: How does one work with that?
G: I think the only thing when you’re challenged with that is not to engage, because I have consulted with a legal team in the past and things like that, and I always think it’s just adding fuel to fire. And I think if you have an evolved mind-set and I would like to think of myself with an evolved mind-set … When you’re challenged, I do believe that there is equal support elsewhere. So I don’t get misled or distracted by being challenged what people say and so forth. I personally don’t have anything to prove to myself, so when people challenge me or something like that I don’t really get involved. It’s okay. If they challenge me or they are putting me down I know somewhere else are going to pull me up, so it’s okay.
R: You then came back to South Africa. And did you then step out of modelling, or was it a more gradual …
G: No, my career was actually in a few spikes. And I actually think it was actually a very good thing, because you have to be a rare commodity in life if you want to build a brand. If you go everywhere, people don’t really enjoy that commodity that’s always there, everywhere. Yes, you’re nice, it’s nice to see you everywhere, but you don’t become that rare commodity where people really value when you do step out and if you arrive and you attend some event or whatever celebration it is. It wasn’t a gradual … I peaked in my career and then I fell in love with my then-husband, and I got married, and during my marriage …
R: You were barely 20.
G: Ja, I met my ex-husband at age 18 and we were just friends. And then just before I turned 20 he was, you know, why don’t we make this official, and when I got engaged and got married I stepped out of the modelling industry. It was obviously not the ideal thing with my personality. I’m that girl, when I fall in love, I fall in love completely … Back then! Now it’s a little bit different because I’ve grown up and I’ve learned so much in life and in relationships. But back then, I kind of, he became my everything. So career kind of took a back seat.
R: So would you do it differently now?
G: 100%
R: In what way?
G: I’m still a diehard romantic, like I don’t want to be that pessimist, but I have become a realist. So I think in today’s society, specifically where the world is growing with the digital age, people are becoming so much more disconnected with the world and we try to escape feelings instead of really feeling, going through the pains and so forth. So in life, in a relationship, it can never just be beautiful. It can never just be easy, it can never just be happy. I would even go as far as if you think that a relationship is just going to be smooth sailing, it’s quite a delusional way of thinking regarding relationships. So nowadays, because everything at a touch of a button, you can quickly get instant gratification, quickly get recognition, there’s temptation here, it’s so easy. Boundaries are being crossed, lines are blurred, so I think what’s really important regarding a relationship is to keep your own individuality. And when that relationship becomes an own world, it’s a beautiful thing, and enjoy it, but still have that realistic approach that anything can happen, you know, I think it’s …
R: You need a life separate from him.
G: Yes, and that actually also contributes to a successful relationship because you can grow together. He became a part of your world, and you become a part of his world and you don’t become each other’s worlds.
R: But it must have been incredibly hard for you, at that young age, to then go through a very hurtful process leading to divorce?
G: Yes, that was probably one of my most traumatic experiences in my life, specifically because he became my absolute world and I obviously was also always very conscious of my name, so I was very fearful of being that girl that’s a divorcee at such a young age, and I was in the limelight. So although I never entertained or spoke out about the intimate details of what went wrong in the relationship, and I never will because it’s not what it’s about, but it was very, very challenging. I did become quite depressed afterwards just because I had this expectation of my life where I wanted it to be and you kind of go, oh my word, my life is … You know, that completely failed, and I was such a perfectionist before and so strict with myself, you know, everything that I wanted to do I had to be the best at it and I failed like this. And also something that was very challenging, was the fact that it was so out there. And now everybody saw this girl, she’s going through a divorce. A lot of people that became my friends, stepped away afterwards. So it was a very interesting time throughout my life and very lonely.
R: What about trust? Because you had trusted so completely, and then you were really hurt?
G: Do you know, I would probably say that one of the negative things that came from that … Maybe it shows me in a positive way somehow, but I don’t trust easily, even to this day, not at all. I kind of have, a little bit in the back of my mind that you’re on your own, which is not ideal, it’s not great but it’s serving me in a beautiful way today, because I kind of … I’ve built my own life, I’m 100% independent, I can go and come as I please, I don’t have that feeling of I need someone to make me happy. I’m happy in who I am today and very content. When someone enters my life, and if I choose to be with him, it’s going to be for 100% the right reasons. Ja, it was a challenging time, but I think something that I always tell other girls when they ask me about that experience … You know, so often we get cooped up in the idea marriage and the wedding and you want to go out there and have an amazing wedding. It’s really not about the wedding – it’s really about the marriage. Really invest in the marriage and not the wedding!
R: When you then came back to South Africa, you started your own PR company, and you said to me that that experience of starting something, putting your money into it etc., was quite intense?
G: Yes, so after my marriage not working out, I came back to South Africa and moved to Cape Town. And in the beginning, immediately after I moved back, I was doing some modelling because it’s a very lucrative industry, but I always knew I don’t want to be that girl that’s like a model until 40. Nothing wrong with it, but I didn’t want to be that. And I wanted to reinvent myself as an individual. Obviously I’ve been through a challenging time, so for the interim I decided to do some modelling, use that as a business and invest my money. And I always had that entrepreneurial flair. For the money that I made, I invested in property and I was also thinking how am I going to do … What am I going to do? So I started the public relations company, which I really enjoy because I really enjoy building brands, telling a story through a brand or whatever it is. And I started the public relations company and it went well, but I always had, in the back of my mind, that we kind of project society standards and opinions into our lives and we put ourselves into a pitfall, and I felt quite insecure that I never had that Masters’ degree after school, instead I went and travelled the world and it was amazing, but I had that insecurity.
R: You didn’t have a certificate.
G: Exactly. You know, that specific certificate that we all kind of compare ourselves to at some stage in our lives. So I decided to … I enrolled to do a post-grad certificate in business and finance, I really enjoyed it and I did very well and it was okay, I have done it and it’s amazing. However, if I look back, it did not really teach me anything. Study can really contribute to discipline, disciplining your mind into a certain way of thinking and always finishing certain things, working towards a certain goal. And I’m not saying don’t go and study – if you have an opportunity to go and study, definitely, go study, education is amazing. However, it does not define you. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you have that spirit and there are so many ways of learning and implementing what you’ve learned through different avenues and so forth. So the public relations company was great. A great lesson. I think you have to fail at many things before you kind of find your niche in life, and failing is not actually failing for me, it’s just …
R: It’s learning.
G: 100%. So the public relations company ate quite a bit of my money in the beginning, and I got quite nervous and that’s when I decided to go and get the certificate, just to kind of add and put that insecurity to rest in the back of my mind. So that was a good lesson to learn. But after I studied and stayed in London I wanted to kind of start a business there – I’ve always had this relationship with London where I think it’s amazing, but something always keeps pushing me back, bringing me back to South Africa and I kind of finally accepted the fact that my heart is here. I really love South Africa in the midst of all the challenges we’re facing at the moment, I try to take emotion out of it and kind of find the opportunity.
R: And then you came back and you started a foundation first before you started a commercial enterprise.
G: Yes, so as I came back, I decided to … What am I going to do? I was sort of going through a transition period, and unfortunately, well, fortunately, it taught me a great amount of things in life. I actually fell ill and I was misdiagnosed with cancer, then at a very later stage I found out it was a very rare auto-immune disease which is not curable, and during that time, you go through everything you have experienced and I have experienced a lot, I’ve seen all sides of the world and I kind of reflected, and when your health is compromised, it’s something that you cannot compare that experience to anything. It’s sad, but it does happen … Sometimes you have to go through those situations in order to find your absolute purpose in life. Sometimes your biggest void – lack of health – can give birth to your biggest passion. During the time that I was reflecting and trying to gain optimum health again, I learned the necessity of education, knowledge on how the body works the mind, the emotion and physical connection on a metaphysical level and I started reading books, I got introduced to a doctor in the states who is a theologist and I started learning about ways to change my mind-set because I had such a polarised mind-set.
R: All things are either good, or bad?
G: We tend to label things, and I made so many mistakes in my life where if something is not the way I want it to be, you know, from the positive way, then you had to steer away from it because we’re actually such a hedonistically driven society. We kind of realise how we’re not dealing with the challenges in life, we want to escape them all the time instead of learning how does it serve me. So what I learned through the time where I was really ill was how to recalibrate my mind and live in harmony, live a happy, fulfilling life regardless of the way that I look, because I was so judged with that before. And that critical eye that I had on myself and that self-loathing mind-set. So the knowledge that I learned, I also realised that I was fortunate enough to go to the workshop, consult with these doctors and get medical help and then I just felt this urge inside of me, besides the fact that I was always involved in foundations and charities before raising awareness or raising money for them … Why is this knowledge only available to people that can really afford it. So I decided to start my own foundation. Yes, in the beginning people were like how are you going to make money and yes, I do like beautiful things and I do enjoy to travel and so forth …
R: And one needs to earn a living in some way.
G: But you know, sometimes the way to eat a big elephant is one bite at a time, so I just started the foundation and I thought to myself, you know what, whilst I’m recovering, this is a great way of giving back. And I will find my way – I don’t need to see the end goal. I really learned to let go of the outcome in that moment.
R: Oh, it’s difficult because you want to know where you’re going.
G: It’s very important to plan and know where you’re going, but you don’t sometimes … Sometimes when you’re always focusing on the end, you don’t actually see anything in front of you, and that taught me to … Well, I discovered an amazing thing that sometimes when you let go of the outcome, you really can enjoy the magic that is happening right in front of you and in the moment. And being in the moment also gives birth to so many other opportunities. So I kind of changed my mind-set a little bit because I always had to be in control and know exactly where it is I’m going – if I don’t know, I would go somewhere else. So you’re kind of always looking for instant gratification – you need to know everything. And delayed gratification is such a beautiful thing. It’s difficult – super difficult, I have to remind myself often to kind of … Rome was not built over night. It’s an amazing place, one of my favourite cities in the world, but to build something amazing takes a very, very long time.
R: But so, you have now also started a company?
G: Yes. After the foundation I learned that it’s not going to work to just work and work and work really hard and not be rewarded financially. It’s also very important to be financially independent, so through one of the projects that I was doing with young girls, a gentleman from a company called Nutriwell, who is now my partner, assisted with the project, they sponsored some food packages – its boxes of 17 meals – it’s a phenomenal product. And that way I saw the product and he approached me and we started engaging in possible opportunities in the future and now we’re partners in the business and we are making a phenomenal difference in the lives of South Africans.
R: So where do you want to take this?
G: One day I would like to be listed on the JSE, so I have big dreams. I want to eventually be 40s under 40s … That list of being a phenomenally influential woman here in South Africa and on the African continent. So my vision is really … I think there are amazing companies out there, but we lack companies that are socially conscious, really making a difference. And I have really found my purpose, I would say, I’ve always enjoyed being that inspirational role-model or whatever it is you want to call it. Making a difference, inspiring other people and changing lives around me in whichever way it is that I can, but I found a way to also be rewarded. So I found a foundation, and we have Nutriwell, if there are communities that actually cannot afford the product, I can get sponsors through the foundation, so the foundation is still going, because that’s what I want to be remembered for, my legacy one day. And with Nutriwell, we are engaging with various private and government, with, you know, like getting the product into schools and hospitals and so forth …
R: Pre-packaged, nutritious meals?
G: Yes. So at the moment, you know, there are 620 million children in the world, between the ages 1 to 7 – 45% of deaths in those children is due to malnourishment. So malnourishment is such an epidemic in this world today, that we’re not realising … It’s not only occurring in previously disadvantaged families, even in very wealthy families it’s so easy with our lives today to pop a meal in the microwave. A microwave meal that you bought at the shop or whatever and we give it to our kids because life carries on and it’s so fast. So the child doesn’t actually develop their brain to its full potential. So they go into something called silent hunger, and the brain is actually growing, but not at the rapid stage or free to where it needs to …
R: Because it does not get nutrients.
G: And besides not developing the brain fully, there are so many other risks associated with malnourishment.
R: So your product …
G: It’s not only … You know, there are a lot of products that is like a nutrient dense product that you can put on your food, or a vitamin tablet, but your body cannot even absorb it. So it’s actually a meal, and we have fortified the meal by putting 50 different nutrients in it. From vitamin A, to iron, to folic acid, to the whole range of nutrients that the body needs to function fully. So it’s also not targeted at kids, but it’s also targeted at HIV patients, tuberculosis patients, old age people, people that cannot …
R: People whose immune systems are weak.
G: So you see how this company … Every time I think about it, I’m so passionate about it because it resonates with me. My immune system was compromised and is compromised, so nutrition is a crucial part. You can’t alleviate hunger or poverty only, because even if you alleviate that to a certain degree, you need to get nourishment into the individual. And besides it affecting the individual, it’s affecting our economy in so many ways. We lose about R1 billion annually due to … the GDP because South Africans are not fully functioning the way that they need to. The children are not really functioning at school, they’re not really concentrating. People are dropping out of university because they don’t have enough … There are so many … it gives birth to so many problems, that’s why I am so passionate about it.
R: Gina, but this also means that you now have to establish another base in Johannesburg?
G: Yes.
R: How do you experience the two cities?
G: Do you know what? I love Cape Town, because Cape Town is where my good friends are – my girlfriends are all mommies, and all my friends that I call if I have a hard time or a challenging time. But because I’m at that stage in my life where I understand I’m not getting younger, and I really need to build towards my future and what it is that I’m going to contribute and leave behind in this planet. So Johannesburg – I do feel – is the capital from a financial and work way in South Africa and things just happen here all the time. And my soul feels alive here. I really enjoy the diversity, the energy, so I’m just really enjoying it. We’re opening a head office here now, we’re going to open a distribution centre because it’s just so much easier to distribute from Johannesburg, so exciting times, but hard work.
R: And how do you … You now have to have a place in Johannesburg where you are like a migrant worker, you’re there from Monday to Friday … How do you make that a home, a place where you can also find quiet and peace …
G: It’s very important for me to be surrounded in a space that is authentic and really represents who I am, because I have an entrepreneurial spirit and it’s my office, so I will be running it. So when people walk into my space and I spend so much time in the office, I want people to go okay, this represents who Gina is. The brand represents who I am as well. They go hand in hand, so I’m creating my office … we’re actually in the process of decorating the space at the moment, and on the walls we’re doing wallpaper with clouds in it. It’s just something so small, but every day I walk into my office realising that the sky is my limit, you know? Like there’s so much freedom out there and it’s crucial to always have that mind-set of knowing that if you have a dream, if you have a vision, go for it and the only limiting beliefs are actually your own.
R: And your personal space?
G: So at the moment my home I would consider is Cape Town, is my home. Because that’s my real personal space. And then I have a house here on the farm where I grew up in Johannesburg, and I haven’t decided whether I want to make a move to the city, because I’m in the city all day at the office and seeing clients and going around everywhere. So it’s really nice to have my little escape, my sacred haven going back to the farm, surrounded by the roses, the vegetable patches, the animals, the family, my niece, the whole family, they all have their own homes on the farm, so it’s actually very nice. So I think for now I will probably keep it like that because I have the best of both worlds.
R: Thank you for visiting, and all the very, very, very best. We will keep an eye on how the company develops and where you go.
G: Thank you so much for having me, I’m very grateful, thank you.
R: Until next time, go well. Bye-bye.
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