Zinnia Kumar

Zinnia Kumar is an Australian fashion model.

Career

Fashion modelling Kumar has appeared on magazine covers for Vogue Australia, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue India, Russh, CAP74024, Love Want, More or Less and Porter which called her a 'Force of Nature'.

Kumar rose to prominence as the first South Asian Australian to cover Vogue Australia in 62 years.

Kumar has since 2019 featured in publications Russh, Interview Magazine, Another Magazine, British Vogue, Vogue China, Vogue Singapore, Vogue France, Vogue Italia, Vogue Germany, Vogue Korea, CAP74024, Vogue India In 2022, Kumar created a viral sustainable red carpet moment for the British Fashion Awards, wearing an upcycled Yohji Yamamoto dress and sustainable diamonds from Chopard.

In film she has featured in Wonder Woman as an Amazonian warrior.

Kumar was first scouted as a model at a department store in Sydney, but did not secure representation with any Australian modelling agencies. She later moved to the United Kingdom to pursue her PhD studies.

Advertising Agency Kumar co-founded The Dotted Line which was a social impact-driven advertising agency applying psychology with creativity to mindfully shift sustainability and diversity norms within the fashion industry. She has presented for G20, FIT NY , British Fashion Council, Vogue, Cancer Council, Australasian Evolution Society, Design Council , Australian Museum, The Australian, CFS+, Save Soil, green scepticism

She is a field conservation ecologist accredited by the Chartered Institute of Ecology and Environmental Managers, and worked with Little Blue Penguins, invertebrates and wetland birds for organisations such as the New South Wales Environment Protection Authority, Birdlife and the Australian Department of Environment primarily in the Australian outback. She published research looking at negative frequency dependant selection on human attractiveness, researching men's beards and women's hair colour under the social condition of rarity; her research coined the cultural phenomenon of 'Peak beard'.

In 2020 Zinnia became a member of the Vogue Values Diversity Council after presenting a case to News Corp about how to increase representation and reach a wider audience. She advocated for the first dark skinned indigenous Australian, actress Magnolia Maymuru, the first Indian actress, Priyanka Chopra and the first Korean-Australian, singer Roseanne Park to be on the cover of Australian Vogue for the first time in 62 years. In 2021 Zinnia was nominated by models.com as a Social Mover and Change Maker.

Zinnia has spoken about barriers for South Asian models.

Women's empowerment For her humanitarian work, empowering disadvantaged girls in Australia, India and Thailand through direct educational mentorship and motivation, she was awarded a Rotary Youth Leadership Award and was selected as a youth ambassador for the Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs.

For her social impact entrepreneurship, research and advocacy, Zinnia Kumar was invited to deliver the keynote special address at the G20 Empower conference in Gujarat, India in 2023. Zinnia spoke of the importance of female mentorship as an integral part of empowerment and belief building for disadvantaged girls. Zinnia's mentor at the time was Shelly Zalis.

Zinnia has Asperger syndrome. She had severe social anxiety

She attended a disadvantaged public high school and self learned her final year studies. Zinnia Kumar attended University of New South Wales for a Bachelor of Advanced Science, in Ecology and Human Evolutionary Biology with First Class honours, and holds an MSc in Industrial, Organisational and Business Psychology from University College London.

Authored articles

"Negative frequency-dependent preferences and variation in male facial hair". Biology letters (Royal Society). 1 April 2014 "Are Preferences for Women's Hair Color Frequency-Dependent?" Adaptive Human Behaviour and Physiology. 19 September 2014