“I wanted to cry…I did cry,” recalls Cecilia Wu, wincing at the memory of her first and only modeling class. A family friend recommended Wu enroll while on a trip to Hangzhou, China, her mother’s hometown. Age: 13. Heels: too high. Wu was ordered to stand unmoving against the wall for thirty minutes–a self-evidently diabolical exercise. “I’m never doing this again!” she announced to her classmates. “Never” lasted eight years.

What repelled her at 13 seemed like an interesting challenge by 21. In 2018, Wu was a college senior pursuing volleyball and nursing at Seattle University when she gave modeling another go. After sending “digis” to local agencies, Wu booked shoots for Nordstrom. But she remained adamant about becoming a nurse. Today, Wu walks for the likes of Bottega Veneta, Marc Jacobs, and Gabriela Hearst. But at the onset of Covid-19, the future Pop cover star worked the frontlines at Swedish Health Services in Seattle.

It’s an atypical trajectory–nurse to super-model– but Wu had always felt drawn to the medical profession, compelled to provide emotional support to those in need of care. It’s about “meeting them where they’re at,” Wu says of her patients. “You can tell if they’re more anxious or stressed—you can tell by their blood pressure.” Though the pandemic was hectic, to say the least, Wu has proven to be resilient, greeting chaos with tenacity.

That tenacity has served her well in modeling, an industry notorious for its volatility. In both worlds, “you have no idea what kind of great day or what kind of dumpster fire you’re going to walk into.” The key, she tells me, is to remain adaptable. Accustomed to turbulence, Wu is committed to going with the flow, and maintaining a composed disposition.

While she seems every bit the confident model, Wu reveals that she has a hard time feeling self-assured. Growing up, she sought a sense of belonging. “I was an Asian in sports… I was a tall Asian in sports,” she says.“I always felt like this floater.” Wu admits that, despite her recent career success, she still struggles to confront the little voice that undermines her self-worth: “I think it’s going to be a long time before I’m feeling confident about myself rather than regressing to [these] worrisome, self-questioning habits.” But Wu is prepared for the journey. Most people dread aging, but the 25-year-old model embraces getting older. “I enjoy it because you’re learning so much every year.” Her biggest lesson this year has been patience.

Honing this skill, the nurse-turned-model has begun to redirect her caring instincts toward herself. She fights the urge to set expectations, focusing instead on building relationships with designers as she does with her patients. She is beginning to acknowledge her accomplishments, creating space to celebrate her recent campaigns and editorials. Wu is excited to enter the Spring/Summer 24 season with a refreshed energy and experience under her belt. “I remind myself: ‘You’ve come this far and you can go further.’”

This feature appears inside the pages of V144: now available for purchase!

Photography Petros Kouiouris

Fashion Altorrin 

Makeup Kevin Cheah (Kramer + Kramer)

Hair Chika Nishiyama (87 Artists)

Model Cecilia Wu (Women)

Manicure Stephanie Hernandez

Photo assistants Ricardo Lara, Leiber Alvarez

Stylist assistants Roderick Reyes, Sionán Murtagh

Makeup assistant Joshua Hilario

Hair assistant Aya Yamashita

Location Loupe Studios