Yaya DaCosta Videos - Pictures and Daily Affirmations from Model Yaya DaCosta - Esquire

 

Yaya Dacosta Will Now Cheer You Up: Videos

Feeling low? Meet Esquire's Woman of Summer 2010 as she moves beyond Tyra's clutches on America's Next Top Model and onto your screen with five Daily Affirmations from a Beautiful Woman. For more Yaya, see The Kids Are All Right — and the helpful photographs below.

GALLERY: Who's the Ultimate Woman of Summer?

Photograph by Ben Goldstein

Originally published in the June 2010 issue

Yaya DaCosta was the "smart one" and runner-up on season three of America's Next Top Model, so when she visits schools to speak about global environmentalism, it's hard for some to forget. "Most of the questions will be thought provoking, whether it's about responsible consumerism or global warming or Haiti," DaCosta says. "Then someone will ask, 'Is Tyra Banks nice?'" DaCosta holds degrees in international relations and Africana studies from Brown University, is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and since Top Model ended, has landed roles in movies like The Messenger, Take the Lead, and the upcoming The Kids Are All Right. During college, she hadn't planned on modeling or acting at all: "The thing at the top of my list was going to Geneva for an intensive in interpreting." She would've been a great asset to foreign diplomacy, but we're glad she chose otherwise. —Mark Mikin

Yaya DaCosta Videos - Pictures and Daily Affirmations from Model Yaya DaCosta - Esquire