Onella Muralidharan emerged onto the Australian fashion scene in 2021 after being crowned the winner of Bella Management’s annual Unsigned Model Competition. Fast becoming one of the most recognised faces in Australian fashion and beauty media; Onella was born in Sri Lanka and immigrated with her family to Australia at just eight years old. Today, Onella chooses to utilise her position as a Curve model to further drive messages of acceptance, body positivity, and mental health wellness through all the work she is engaged in, whether it be through global campaigns or in her own curated social media content.

Although not something she considers a struggle, Onella was born with the skin condition Vitiligo; a condition characterised by the lack of pigmentation across different parts of the skin and body. With very little representation for curve models with skin conditions, Onella has unintentionally set out to ‘normalise the real’, using her modelling work and social media platform to ‘portray a real person’.

Working with a plethora of different brands since signing with Bella in 2021, Onella has been the face of campaigns for Sportsgirl, Mecca, ModiBodi and Youswim. She has walked at Melbourne and Australian Fashion Weeks as well as taken part in The Iconic’s revolutionary Runway X collaboration with Meta. Photographed for Gritty Pretty magazine by renowned Australian photographer, Bonnie Hansen, Muralidharan has also been featured in Body and Soul Magazine, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Age. To round out her media resume, Onella has also had segment features on Channel 10’s ‘Studio 10’ as well as Channel 9’s ‘House of Wellness.’

Onella currently lives on the Mornington Peninsula with her partner Ryan and fur babies, Havi and Daisy. She recently obtained her degree in Interior Design from Collarts in Melbourne. She hopes to continue to use her position in the spotlight to showcase diversity in the media and continue to harness her creativity to leave an impact.

SPEAKER TOPICS:

Vitiligo |Body Image | Mental Health | Identity | Diversity and inclusion