ABOUT
"THE UNLIKELY FACE OF ASEXUALITY"
- cOSMOPOLITAN MAGAZINE
"Yasmin Benoit is currently one of the main faces of the asexual community world-wide. Thanks to her activism, asexuality is gaining greater visibility in media and in the LGBTQ+ community."
- Prague Pride Magazine
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 the 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.
Yasmin 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) and in 2021, she co-founded International Asexuality Day (April 6) and focused more on international work across Europe and the US.
Her unconventional approach to activism has attracted the attention of international press, including Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Glamour Magazine, British GQ, Buzzfeed, and Sky News. She became the first asexual person to appear on the cover of Attitude Magazine and Gay Times, she presented for BBC3 and even opened world's first asexual pop-up bar in partnership with Budweiser for Pride in London. All the while, she has continued to model regularly for brands, including Benefit Cosmetics, Playful Promises and Killstar.
"ASEXUAL looks like Yasmin Benoit. Not a timid woman in baggy, unflattering clothing but a strong, beautiful activist and model (with 80,000 online followers) in not very much at all."
- METRO ONLINE
In 2022, Yasmin launched the 'Stonewall x Yasmin Benoit Ace Project' in partnership with Stonewall. Together, they released the UK's first report into asexual discrimination, which has been described as 'groundbreaking.' That same year, she opened NYC Pride as their first asexual grand marshal. In 2024, she was the first asexual to lead Pride in London and fronted their Pride campaign. The following year, she received a visiting position at King's College London's Policy Institute, where she conducts research into asexuality.
A multi-award-winning activist, Yasmin most recently became the first asexual to win a British LGBT Award. She has also won 'Campaigner/Influencer of the Year' at the Rainbow Honours and an Attitude Pride award for her activism.