“You’re too skinny.”
“Your skin is so dark.”
“You’re too short to be a model.”
Prerna Massey had heard these statements enough times in her childhood. So, when she started getting the same kind of comments – “Why are you so dark?” “Why are you roaming naked?” “What will your neighbours say?” – on her Instagram Reels in December 2024, it didn’t faze her. She knew that much of the hate stemmed from the fact that she didn’t exactly belong. Massey’s #OOTDs were shot on her building’s terrace in Saket in Delhi – peeling grey walls, low-rent neighbourhood in the background.
Massey, now 26, continued shooting her transition videos: High Fashion Look on an Indian Girl, Latina Look on an Indian Girl, Sketch Design versus Real Look. “My aim was to show that even a normal Indian terrace can be an aesthetic backdrop, if you’re confident in your style,” she recalls.
But about a year ago, fate flipped the script . For every 10 hate comments, there was a compliment: “You look like Tyla, OMG!” “You’re our Indian Kendall Jenner”. The Reels went viral. The fans congregated. Massey got collab requests, brand deals, invitations to model clothes. In the last year, she’s been on billboards for Mac makeup, modelled for H&M, and won Elle’s Fashion Influencer of the Year. Everyone’s GRWM-ing on the ’gram. So why did her vids inspire us to like, save and follow?
Backstage rush
Massey had wanted to model since she was 16. She wanted to be like fashion influencer Dolly Singh, showcase affordable fashion like Komal Pandey, and throw on everyday fits like Kritika Khurana. So, even as she worked as a doctor’s receptionist, she started writing fashion blogs and posted makeup and styling videos on YouTube. Nothing stuck.
She tried applying to Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology, but with her single mum working as a drama teacher, they couldn’t afford the fees. She also worked as an assistant at an art gallery before she decided to pursue modelling full time. “I was a bit naïve,” she admits. “I didn’t know how to model, pose, or how to put together a portfolio.” It didn’t work out either.
She obsessively slid into brand’s DMs, took on whatever gigs she got, and borrowed money from friends to travel to shoots. Even that didn’t help. “I started wondering if I should have done something else with my life.” Turns out, the answer was right under her nose all along – or actually above her head.
Upward pivot
Massey was looking for a place to shoot her transition videos. “A small terrace area in my building was available, it had great natural light, so I thought ‘Why not shoot my vids here?’” It had grey, flaky walls, it looked downmarket. Where others would go Eww, Massey went Aha! She realised the backdrop would make her outfits pop.
She started posting three or four videos every day: Pinteresty looks, cowgirl-themed fits, formal outfit ideas. When trolls commented that she was wearing revealing clothes for the attention, she posted a fit check Reel saying “Have you seen what women wear when men are not around?” She told her women supporters to not to let their boyfriends dictate what they wore, and that it was okay to flaunt stretch marks. “I post knowing someone is minding my business,” she says in one vid. “I mean, give them [haters] a show!”
A sunset-themed crochet top and skirt look, made by a friend at NIFT, got a million views in January 2025. “That’s when things really took off,” Massey recalls. More fashion students reached out, eager for her to display their work. Brands asked her to collab. Her following crept up in the first few months of 2025, from 30,000 people to 440K. She began recreating Hollywood looks – Bella Hadid, Tyla, Kendall Jenner. Big brands came calling. She went from crumbling terrace to beauty-brand shoots in Bangkok and a vacation in London. Along the way, she bought her first luxury products (a Dior lipstick and perfume). “It’s still a little crazy, this whole domino effect,” Massey says.
Shake it off
Trolls still leave hate comments occasionally – now they take issue with how skinny she is. “I’ve learned to keep a poker face and not react.” The bigger worry is that the fame will wear off. “I’m an overthinker. Even on my days off, I was constantly wondering what project I would next get. Sometimes I’d wake up and shoot videos just because I didn’t want my following to drop.” It pushed her to work so relentlessly last year that she was hospitalised for an iron deficiency.
The goal for 2026, she says, is to do less one-off collabs and have longer-term modelling assignments. She’s moving out of her home (and saying goodbye to the flaking terrace) to a place with more camera-friendly vibes. And she’s learning how to play the algorithm and the endorsement game. “Your social media presence is your portfolio,” she says. “I’m learning about briefs, specific angles, lighting requirements, script approvals, posting timelines, hashtags, tagging formats – all of which I wouldn’t pay attention to before because I thought you could just post a video and send it to a brand.”
She’s still processing the whirlwind of the last year. “Maybe in another life, I’ll show off my father’s money,” she says in an Insta post. “But in this one, I’ll achieve everything on my own.”
From HT Brunch, February 28, 2026
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