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10 minute read
Words by The Animals Observatory | Jan 27, 2023
They are the kid models of the Spring-Summer 2023 campaign, and they are much more. At The Animals Observatory we took the time to get to know them better while photo shooting. As you will have noticed, we love spending time with children as, for example, in our last food workshop, learning from them, and bringing out our inner child to have fun.
These good animals turned out to be really passionate kids, with so many dreams and interests, therefore today we would like to introduce them.
@Joanie_And_Me. Picture by @KikuPinol.Amazing
She has a specific answer for every question: Joanie is smart and she expresses herself with grace and elegance. Foxes are her go-to animals. Considering how smart she is, it makes sense that she picked such a clever animal. Did you know that foxes have incredible hearing? They can hear a watch trick from 40 yards away. Joanie is also an active kid and she does boxing and horse-riding,
Joanie also has a cat called Pinkie and, honoring the saying that cats have seven lives, Pinkie has already proven to be kind of immortal because she was hit by a car, but she survived even though she lost her tail in the process. However, Pinkie is really clever and she even makes sounds when she wakes her up and sits on her lap and warms her.
Although she’s only seven years old, she’s already sure of two things: she wants to be an astronaut and girls can do whatever they want. Not to brag about it, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see Joanie landing on the moon sometime soon. We just hope when this happens, it has some David Bowie’s soundtrack around.
@Viktoria_TS. Picture by @KikuPinol.
She has almost the same energy as an earthquake. Viktoria can’t pass unnoticed because her enthusiasm is contagious and lights up the people surrounding her. Viktoria plays many sports, but her most beloved one is figure skating. She knows how to create movements while expressing herself or while trying to emulate Viktoria Safonova, a young promise of the sport who skates really, really well. Although, if you ask her who is her most favorite treasured skater, her answer is Alina, her coach. Viktoria explains that she admires Alina’s ability to skate and she trains in Grodno, a small city in western Belarus near the Polish border, where it snows a little in the winter.
Viktoria has a dog called Zlata. She loves animals and that’s why she would add a chinchilla and a turtle to the family if she could. But when asked what animal she would be if she had to become one, she knows for sure that she would only want to be a bird so she can fly around.
Another fact about Viktoria is that she loves fast food so much that she can’t choose only a dish: burgers, pizza, cola… She can have it all, although she doesn’t eat that every day, because it’s not healthy. Music and English are her main subjects in school and maybe in the future she would like to play some instruments.
@Iwo_N_Rysuje. Picture by @KikuPinol.
There’s a little big human called Iwo in Poland. He’s 9 years old and he has a big dream: to become a soccer player like Lewandowski, the new striker at FC Barcelona. Lewandowski is a killer soccer player and, in the area, he scores goals from every corner and he’s also from Poland! That’s why it’s not hard for Iwo to imagine himself celebrating a goal in Camp Nou stadium wearing the FC Barcelona shirt.
But besides his sports skills, Iwo is also an organized kid that loves design and architecture. Lines, symbols, structures and constructions are things that often come to Iwo’s mind and that’s why he would also like to become a graphic designer or an architect. That’s why it’s not strange to know that Maths is the subject he likes the most at school. Who knows, maybe he’s the next Dalí or Frank Gehry and his masterpiece is a soccer stadium.
Iwo loves cats. They are his favorite animals because he has two of them and he has first-hand experience about how magical and loving they can be. Their names are Zirka and Banksy. Bansky is black, Iwo’s most-liked color, and Zirka is black and white mixed.
When asked about what superpower he would choose if he could have one, Iwo clearly knows his answer: teleportation. The reason behind it it’s that if he could teleport himself, he wouldn’t need to walk anymore. Clearly Iwo’s a visionary. He can imagine himself traveling around the world without having to queue in the airport security check. Iwo loves to travel and he’s already been to Egypt, Spain, Italy, Norway, Poland, Greece and England. Visiting these countries, he’s developed a deep love for pizza and burgers. There are so many places he wants to go that he doesn’t know if he will have time. It’s true though, that there are 195 countries in the world so… That’s a lot of time in the queue at the airport!
@Sarah_Lu_Maltby. Picture by @KikuPinol.
Sarah Lu’s favorite food is sushi. At seven years old she knows herself well enough to say the sushi she likes the most is, to be specific, sushi with salmon and cucumber. If anyone needs to invite her for lunch, it would rather be a sushi place. By the way, few people know that the inventor of modern sushi is believed to be Hanaya Yohei, who invented nigiri sushi, a type of sushi most known today, in which seafood is placed on hand-pressed vinegared rice. This happened around 1824.
If Sarah Lu could be an animal, she would like to be a horse. Why? Sarah Lu says it’s because people play with them and she would love to take people for a ride. She says she could ride from Denmark to Egypt, her favorite place in the world. The distance between these two countries is 5.408 kilometers, so they may have to do some pit-stops along the way. And what is it about Egypt that has stolen Sarah Lu’s heart? It may be surprising to many, but her love for the country is mainly because it’s hot and the weather is really cool when it’s warm.
Sarah Lu is from Denmark. Denmark has consistently ranked the world’s happiest country, topping numerous surveys and lists. She is sure that when she grows up, she wants to be a model (she has had a great start because she is already working on it). Sarah Lu thinks it’s difficult to decide if she will be a model for a long time, but she knows she still has a lot of years ahead and she can do a lot of things in the upcoming years.
When asked about what superpower would she have, she says she would be invisible so when she goes to sleep, she can’t be seen and she can be awake all night. She thinks invisibility could have many benefits, for example, you could still get ice-cream from the fridge without being noticed. That’s a cool benefit.
Liam. Picture by @KikuPinol.
Liam’s a little kid from Helsinki and he already knows how to speak Finnish, Swedish and he understands English when he’s only eight years old! When talking about animals, he proclaims he loves many species like lions, elephants and whales although he knows that dogs are the best. It’s easy to tell that he likes them because his eyes get big and shine bright when talking about how much he would enjoy having one.
Liam’s also super stylish, it’s also clear that his sense of elegance comes from his mother. He has a contagious smile and energy that warms any room. If anyone wants to make Liam happy, there is a thing that never fails: pizza. Liam, just like a lot of people in the world, can’t live without pizza. Who can, really? You can eat it with your hands and you can put almost anything on a pizza: vegetables, cheese, meat and even pineapple! He admits that a slice of pizza can turn any bad day into a good one. It’s not hard to imagine Liam in the near future walking a dog somewhere in Helsinki along with a slice of pizza in his hands.
Helsinki is known for being the capital of Finland and they play a lot of ice hockey there. But, if you asked Liam what he wants to be when he grows up, he wants to be a basketball player. He even met the Finnish national basketball team while in the airport! He confirms that they were really, really, really, really tall.
Besides being a sporty kid, Liam also knows that if he had a superpower, he would be the strongest person in the world and he would use that power to rescue people. Imagine, for example, that someone needs help because their car has broken down and it needs to be moved. Liam would come to the rescue because he knows that a superpower comes along with a huge responsibility.
@Liv_Vanity. Picture by @KikuPinol.
Liv is an 8 year old kid from the Netherlands, a country located in northwestern Europe. Liv lo-o-o-o-o-o-o-ves horses. She developed a deep bond with them because she’s been horse riding since she was very little and by now, she’s already an avid equestrian. She appreciates that there’s something special about a horse. They are one of the largest and most powerful domestic animals. A horse can bring a smile to the face of even a tiny tot. Known for their great strength, beauty, grace, stamina and spirit. These magnificent creatures can cause one’s pulse to quicken as they gallop wild and free, yet can melt anyone’s heart with their gentleness. She likes them so very much that she has a horse that’s called Pinkeljje and they have a special bond.
Her favorite subject in school is Math because she likes to solve equations and she’s quite good at it, her mother assures with pride it’s always nines and tens while she smiles quietly saying sums are just easy for her. When asked about what superpower she would like to have, she says she would like to move things with her mind because it’s really handy.
Talking about what she likes to eat, Liv’s favorite food is salmon sushi. There is something magical about the mix of the rice, the soya sauce and the fresh salmon that’s just… incredible. Although she is already a great horse-rider, Liv says she wants to be an actress when she grows up because she likes to act and finds it amusing. She is the little sister of the family and admits her brother is sometimes a bit annoying but also fun. And, best of it all, if she could deliver a message to the world, Liv’s message would be this: Enjoy your life and if you have dreams, go for them.
Aren’t they like a breath of fresh air? We love having worked with them to bring the Spring-Summer 2023 campaign to life. They truly speak for this collection, which is about love, spending good times with your loved ones and bonding with animals. If you want to see them in action, take a good look at the Spring-Summer 2023 campaign!
