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Yireh Carrasco© Hola

Yireh Carrasco is crowned first Latina to win the Elite Model World Final

The 16-year-old Dominican Republic native was declared one of the overall winners of the final


NOVEMBER 20, 2019 3:45 PM EST

History has been made in the crowning of Yireh Carrasco as one of overall winners at the Elite Model Look World Final in Paris, France. Yireh is the first ever Latina model to be named female winner of the modeling competition — talk about repping la cultura.

The young model, who hails from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, flew to Paris to participate in the 36th edition of the global modeling competition in the hopes of doing her country proud.

Yireh Carrasco© GettyImages
The 16 year old Dominican Republic native was completely overwhelmed when she heard that she had won the competition in honor of her home country

"I took my first plane to Paris, and I wasn't able to get there due to technical difficulties, and I had to stay in Canada," starts off the model in a heartfelt post on her personal social media page.

She continued, "We arrived to Paris, tired, but with the biggest desire to give my all on behalf of my country...[the Dominican Republic] was the last country to enter [the competition], I was happy and then asked God, [we've got to] keep climbing, and now with even more strength."

Yireh also stated, "When I heard that the DR was the winner, I thought that was dreaming and I only realized that I had won when the press started to gather around me. I want to thank God for being able to see [our] tricolor flag in Paris and for being the first Latin American woman to win the competition."

Some of the other models that have strutted their stuff on the Elite World stage? The ever ageless Cindy Crawford (momma to Kaia Gerber) and Brazilian beauties Alessandra Ambrosio and Gisele Bündchen.

For the first time in Elite Model Look history, seven digital and cultural storytellers (five females and two males) took part in the Elite Model Look Final. The artists showcased their talents and digital craftsmanship in a bootcamp and in a video creation challenge hosted and judged by TikTok, the leading destination for short-form mobile video.

Elite World Group (EWG) represents the largest group of model management on the planet: through Elite, Women, The Society, Supreme, Stage and Women 360, the network represents over 3,700 top models in 52 countries.