Sophie Kasaei said the Kardashians have made her love her Persian heritage after years of straightening her hair.
The former Geordie Shore star, 32, kept her true Middle Eastern identity hidden because she feared being teased, and said she wanted to “fit in”, so ditched her gorgeous naturally curly hair in favour of poker-straight locks.
Over the last few years, Sophie has begun to embrace her Persian heritage, and said it was down to Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian - who have Armenian ancestry - for making it cool to be proud of her true identity.
“Being Persian had a bit of a stigma around it for a good few years,” she told new! magazine. “It wasn’t anywhere anyone wanted to visit, so I think that’s probably why.”
“But once the Kardashians got popular - I mean, they’re Armenian so it’s a bit different - they embraced their skin and hair," she said of the famous family, whose father Robert Kardashian was born to Armenian-American parents.
“I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m basically a Kardashian now’,” Sophie joked.
The ex-reality star said when she made her debut on Geordie Shore back in 2011, people thought she was Italian, and she was desperate to use Arabic eyeliner, but didn’t because it “wasn’t in fashion”.
“It wasn’t until the Kardashians that I embraced my curves,” she admitted.
Sophie said growing up, “nobody really embraced who they were”, and she was teased at school over her surname.
Now, she’s so comfortable with her Persian heritage that she’s even launched her own haircare line - Mane London - which provides curly extensions for women with hair like hers.
Sophie said she felt “liberated” when she began to wear her hair in its naturally curly form, and spent years wishing she had straight hair and blue eyes “to look like the other girls” on Geordie Shore.
“And when I started loving my curly hair, I was like, ‘oh my god, this is really liberating,’” she shared, as she confessed she feels like she has an “alter-ego” when she wears her Mane London hair extensions.
