Selah Marley made headlines when she took part in Kanye West’s controversial Yeezy Paris Fashion Week show, where models wore shirts with the phrase “White Lives Matter” printed on the back of them. The show sparked much backlash and debate about the phrase, and the model, 23, has been open about wanting to continue to have an open conversation about the decision to wear the controversial outfit.
While she has been in the news lately, Selah is actually no stranger to the spotlight, and she’s been in the fashion industry and around other aspects of the entertainment business for her whole life. Find out everything you need to know about Selah and her background here.
1. Selah comes from a famous family
Selah has been surrounded by musical icons her entire life. Born in November 1998 in Miami, Selah’s mother is R&B and rap legend Lauryn Hill. Selah is Lauryn’s second child and eldest daughter. While the “Ex-Factor” star is a huge star, she’s not the only famous musician that Selah’s related to. Her dad is former Canadian Football League player Rohan Marley, whose father was famed reggae musician Bob Marley. While Selah is one of Bob’s grandchildren, she never met him, as he died in 1981.
2. She’s been modeling for over a decade
While Selah comes from a musical family, she instead has pursued a career in fashion. She made her debut in Teen Vogue back in 2011. While she’s mostly stuck to modeling through her adult life, at the time she did express some desire to pursue a career in music. “Singing is my favorite thing to do. One day I hope to get signed to a record label,” she told the outlet. Since then, she’s appeared in a number of different publications, including Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and many more. She’s represented by Creative Talent Management, according to Models.com.
3. She clapped back after being involved in the Kanye controversy
After she was called out for participating in Kanye’s fashion show, she took to her Instagram to respond to her critics. She accused the people calling her out of being part of a “hive mind mentality,” and she said that she wouldn’t back down from speaking her mind, although she did not provide any commentary on why she chose to wear the “White Lives Matter” outfit. “You can not bully me, manipulate me, or coax me into silence. Nor will you bully me into being who you want me to be. I don’t care how many tweets you make, DMs you send, or articles you write. Throughout all of the chaos, I have yet to speak on my experience. If you know me, you know that nothing I do is without deep thought and intention,” she wrote in part.
4. She’s been open about childhood ‘trauma’
Back in August 2020, Selah took to Instagram to speak about her childhood experiences, and she claimed that her parents were “always arguing, always fighting,” during her childhood, and she also claimed her father Rohan “wasn’t around” as much as she would’ve liked, which he also apologized for at the time. “I think for me growing up, remember I grew up with all brothers, so I’m like we’re fighting, we are fighting so I just learned how to be tough, I was always tough. So now coming back I’m learning how to cry again. Learning how to forgive is a big one, learning how to love, learning how to not be angry. And what I’m even learning now is how many walls I put up,” she said on Instagram at the time.
5. Her mom named a song after her
While Lauryn has only dropped one studio album, she has performed a number of collaborations and one-off songs since dropping The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill in 1998. While the singer’s sole studio record dropped the same year Selah was born, the singer later released a song, fittingly titled “Selah” as part of The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood in 2002. Coincidentally, Kanye also released a song called “Selah” in October 2019 as part of his Jesus Is King album, although it appears to reference more of the biblical figure of the same name.