Kenyan comedian and internet sensation Elsa Majimbo has been selected to grace the cover of international based media house Teen Vogue in their latest issue of Young Hollywood Class of 2021.
The 19-year-old is featured alongside the likes of American actress Charli D’Amelio, fellow comedian Ziwe Fumudoh, American dancer Michael Le and US-based rapper Lil Yatchy.
The magazine aims at celebrating young talents who made an impact in the world in unconventional ways. Taking to social media, the comedian was ecstatic about the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"My first magazine cover is with Teen Vogue! My first magazine cover is with Teen Vogue! Bury Me now! Look how God came through for me," she stated.
Speaking about her journey to gaining acclaimed status on a global audience, Majimbo attributed the success of her videos to her comical nature. However, she revealed that her videos going viral happened by chance and was not planned.
"I was talking about how the pandemic sucks, but at least I get to stay away from people and that's definitely a plus. And everyone loved it. Everyone was just loving it. I was like, OK, this video's doing really well. So I slept.
"When I slept I was like at 500 retweets. I wake up, it's at 4,000 retweets. I was freaking out. So I tell my whole family, I'm like, "Guys, I'm famous now. I'm famous now. That's it," she stated.
Majimbo, a chess prodigy, drew comparisons between her career in comedy and playing chess. She admitted that her career surprisingly took off despite all the challenges she's faced.
“Chess and my career are very similar. In both, it's all about the long game. It's all about the end game. There's no point in winning now and picking all the pieces right now if, in the end, I'll just end up losing," she stated.
The comedian further draws inspiration from her stance on racism and pushing the agenda for everyone to be comfortable in their own skin. Alluding to this, she pointed out that most of her videos make a reference to women of dark color.
"I feel like it's so important to me to show, especially women, either dark skin, that there's nothing wrong with being dark-skinned. Just because people want to make you feel like it, doesn't mean there is. And you're just as deserving as everyone else. And you need to go for everything, just like everyone else," Majimbo stated.
The content creator became an instant hit in 2020 as the world was coming to terms with the Covid-19 pandemic. With schools closed and day-to-day lives almost brought to a halt, Majimbo took the chance to entertain her followers on social media with short skits depicting the effects of the pandemic.
In the coming weeks, her videos went viral and the comedian became the talk of town jumping from 10,000 followers to 2.1 million followers. Currently, Majimbo is an ambassador for global brand Fenty Beauty, has appeared on Comedy Central show and also received a nomination for Nickelodeon's Kids Choice Award.
