This year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show is touting some seriously big names: Jenner, Hadid, and Ambrosio, to name a few. In addition to all the bonafide "supers," there are 18 new models walking in the Victoria's Secret Fashion show for the very first time (aww!), many of whom you may not know about yet (read: may not already follow on Instagram and Snapchat). Chinese model Xiao Wen Ju is one of this year's VS runway rookies, and she's one you're going to want to watch.
Each year, it's fun to watch the newbies on the VS catwalk to try to figure out which of them might be the next "big thing," and in 2016 it may very well be Ju. She's been a fixture on the high fashion scene for a while now, but this will be her first time walking in front of such a huge audience. When it comes to models you want to be friends with (which, let's be honest, is really the #1 quality we all look for in celebrities these days), she's pretty much the complete package. She's fun, loves cats, and is the master of the selfie, which means separate from the whole "famous model" thing, she's basically all of us.
Here are seven things you should know about Xiao Wen Ju before you see her crush it on the VS runway next week.
1. She's Been Modeling Since 2010
According to an interview with The Coveteur, IMG found a picture of Ju on the internet and reached out to ask if she wanted to model in New York Fashion Week. The rest, as they say, is fashion industry history.
2. She Was The First Chinese Face Of Marc Jacobs
Ju walked in the Marc Jacobs SS12 show, and then became the face of the brand's ad campaign. Not bad for only two years in the business!
3. She Was The Face Of L'Oreal Paris
Considering she has perfect skin/lips/everything, it's no surprise that Ju was named as the face of L'Oreal in early 2016. And when you're the face of a beauty brand, they do your makeup for all kinds of fancy events, like the Cannes Film Festival (pictured above).
4. She's No Stranger To The Catwalk
This may be Ju's first time on the VS runway, but she's certainly no rookie to runway. She's walked for pretty much every high fashion brand ever, including Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Prada, Tory Burch and 3.1 Phillip Lim (among lots and lots of others).
5. She Once Walked The Wrong Way Down The Runway & Handled It Like A Star
During the Tibi FW11 fashion show, Ju lived out every model's worst nightmare when she came down the runway in the opposite direction as the other models (you can see it in the video starting at 1:37). She handled the situation like a total pro though — she held her head high and didn't flinch — and the situation made her arguably even more famous.
6. She's One Of Four Asian Models Walking In This Year's Show
There have only ever been a handful of Asian models to walk in the VS show (as of last year, there had only ever been five total, starting with Liu Wen in 2009), but this marks a significant shift in the right direction toward more diversity on the runway. Hopefully it continues in the future!
7. She Really Is The Master Of The Selfie
Her Insta-feed is full of them, and she gave a full rundown of her selfie-taking technique to Vogue earlier this year: "The first thing is the angle. The person who knows your face [best] is yourself, so you know which angle is good. If you want to make the picture special, always look for some interesting [expression]—like a monkey! [laughs] It’s funny, it’s alive. I feel like different expressions are the real makeup."
Get used to this face because you're going to see plenty more of her after Monday, Dec. 5!
Images: jujujuxiaowen/Instagram; Courtesy of Marc Jacobs
