MODE: How do you keep your balance between looking good and fashionable versus getting on with other aspects of your life?

Beatriz: Well, I am very simple and I like the word “comfortable”. Since I started working as a model (I was 13 and I am now 24), at least at the beginning, I didn’t have this idea of living any sort of fashionable life. With time, however, I began to realize that it was important to keep a balance. Being the way that I am and how I think, I knew that I would not have to really follow any current fashion fads. I really like to mix what people were using 30 years ago with some nice clothes of today, for example.

MODE: What are your basic daily beauty routines?

Beatriz: Make-up is something that I try to use as little as possible. My mom always told me that too much make-up was really not good for the skin and I followed that advice for sure. So, for the face: Moisturizing cream! When going to a photo shoot I wear no makeup because the people at the shoot know what look they want and I trust them to do a nice job with my face.

MODE: Do you find that you have to exercise regularly to stay in shape or do you easily stay in shape without much effort?

Beatriz: I have to tell you that I am a bit lazy when I shouldn’t be. My job requires that I stay in a good shape but I don’t really follow all the rules. I like to do gardening, to walk on the beach. I did MMA training a year a go and that was really excellent.

When I was in Rio, I was non-stop with exercising because at that time I was preparing myself for the Top CUFA contest and I had many fashion shows so I had to be thinner than what I was! But now I prefer not to over do it and I like being really healthy and having a normal and beautiful shape. Before I was really thin and when I came to France, my agency here they didn’t really like that. So, I had to become less muscular and more natural and not too thin. I don’t need to do a lot but I try to pay attention to what I eat. Exercise is always good for our health and I try to do some at least once or more per week when I go walking or at home, using my Xbox to play-exercise.

MODE: Do you have to follow a strict diet or are you more relaxed about how you eat? If you have to have a cheat meal what would it be?

Beatriz: I love to eat. My husband in the beginning couldn’t understand how I could be eating and not really getting bigger. In Brazil I always ate a lot but it was good food. No fast food, no soda. But I’m not living in Brazil anymore and I have to adapt my life with the way people eat here. Now, I go less crazy (laughing). I am not 13 anymore! But, I don’t like and I don’t follow any diet. I try to eat good things and sometimes, I go for a great pizza. Why not?
Hmmm… chicken wings! I love that. Even just doing this interview is getting me hungry!

MODE: What is your favorite place to visit for a vacation?

Beatriz: I love to go to places where you can be “connected” with nature! Beautiful sunny days! I went to Corsica (France) and I love this place. It is my first place to visit. The best place to visit with family would be Rio, but not the center. Places like Paraty, Trindade, are such a beautiful places to visit!

“Be simple wherever you
are. Don’t try to be better
than the others but try to
be the best of yourself”

MODE: What plans do you have for your career for 2017 and beyond?

Beatriz: I am expecting a baby girl and she will be our gift in 2017! I have decided to stay at home until she is around 8 months and then I will be able to go back to work. I really want to enjoy her!

MODE: If you had to give some words of wisdom to MODE readers for success, happiness and following their dreams what would you say?

Beatriz: I was raised in the favela. A very simple place that people still think isn’t good to raise a kid, to live, or to visit. But it is not the place that makes us. I had to show how good and professional I was to many people when they would ask where I came from!

We have to have wisdom to hear, to evaluate and validate each of our movements, thoughts. And the more I get older, the more I understand what my mom told me to keep firmly in my mind and my heart for my whole life: humility! Be simple wherever you are. Don’t try to be better than the others but try to be the best of yourself!

MODE: How has your life changed since winning the Top CUFA contest? How does it feel to be seen as a celebrity now?

Beatriz: The Top CUFA changed my life in so many ways; some promises happened and others did not. But I have to say that my community, Jacarezinho, were so happy when I won because it was important for them that the world would understand that good things could be raised in those places.

I went to Europe one year after and my personal and professional life changed, and changed a lot! Well, I can say that a lot of good things happened after the contest but not all directly because of the contest. I am a dreamer and good worker and I am trying always to show how good I am without putting others down, so in a way the contest encouraged me to be more of who I am; the way I was brought up to be.