Yasmin Benoit

Yasmin Benoit is a British model, award-winning asexual activist, writer, speaker and project consultant. At 18, she began modelling with the goal of diversifying the fashion industry and became one of the UK's most prominent Black alternative models.

In late 2017, she publicly came out as aromantic-asexual and quickly became an unlikely face and voice for those communities. Her goal is to empower aromantic and asexual people, bring those identities into the mainstream, fight for their social and legal inclusion, and dispel misconceptions about them in an intersectional, cross-sectional way.

Benoit created the popular #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike movement to show that there is no asexual way to look or dress, which has been embraced by asexual people worldwide. In 2019, she became a board member of the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). In 2020, she became an asexualities researcher at California State University and made her presenting debut with her "Me and My Asexuality" BBC Sounds series. Her unconventional approach to activism has attracted the attention of international press, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour Magazine, British GQ, and Sky News.

She has given talks and seminars at a range of companies, institutions, conferences, and Pride events about asexuality and aromanticism, including Prague Pride 2020, Oslo Pride 2021, the LGBT Stem Conference, the University of Cambridge, King Ltd, Kings College London, and Twitter HQ; and she has worked as a project consultant for Stonewall and some television projects. Benoit has recently made her literary debut in the LGBTQ+ anthology, "We Can Do Better Than This." She also gave a TED Talk with the University of Arkansas on asexual representation in the media.

Benoit was one of the co-founders of International Asexuality Day, which was held for the first time on April 6, 2021 to much success. Soon after, she was included on the Attitude101 Influential Figures List as a "trailblazer" in "The Future: Under 25" category and made the Visible100 List as a Community Campaigner.

In June 2021, Benoit won an Attitude Pride Award for her activism, making her the first openly aromantic-asexual activist to win an LGBTQ+ award.

This year, Benoit launched the UK's first asexual rights initiative in partnership with Stonewall, known as the Stonewall x Yasmin Benoit Ace Project. Afterwards, she was awarded "Campaigner/Influencer of the Year" at the Rainbow Honours 2022.