Moroccan Model Rania Benchegra Is Opening Doors for the Next Generation

A university scholarship to study in the United States. For Rania Benchegra, who is used to walking the runways for Louis Vuitton, Versace and Schiaparelli, this achievement has special meaning. In February 2025, the Moroccan model enthusiastically shared that a young girl supported by the association she backs had just received this opportunity in Connecticut. In her eyes, this matters as much as her successes in fashion.

Rania’s journey, however, resembles a dream come true. As a child, she played football in the alleyways of Marrakech’s medina. Her mother watched Victoria’s Secret fashion shows with her, while her father taught her how to walk like a model. She started posing at the age of five.

In 2024, she made that very dream come true by taking part in the runway show for the famous American brand, alongside Kate Moss, Carla Bruni and Tyra Banks. Based in New York, she has since taken on collaborations with major fashion houses and photo shoots.

But in a new interview published on October 8 by Harper’s Bazaar Arabia, marking a new cover feature, Rania says her perspective on her career has changed. “I used to think success always meant landing the next contract, reaching the next goal,” she explains. Now, she prioritizes a life in which she feels good, even when no one is watching.

From international runways to young Moroccan girls

This change is reflected in her involvement with LEAD Africa, an organization that brings together sport and education to support young people with limited means. In Morocco, Rania is personally involved in the initiative.

She does more than appear in the association’s photographs. In a previous interview with the magazine in February 2025, she described her work in detail: seeking funding, persuading sponsors, visiting the academy and meeting the girls. The university scholarship one of them received had already shown what this support could make possible.

“I was incredibly lucky to be able to leave Morocco, and many others don’t have that opportunity,” she said at the time. She believes some of these young people have immense potential but do not have the same opportunities to develop it.

Her commitment to Moroccan women also comes through in a more personal revelation. In her new interview, she reveals that the Moroccan photographer and artist Lalla Essaydi is her aunt. She even posed for one of her series, an experience that deepened her admiration for the artist’s work on the representation of Arab women.

Rania Benchegra now wants her journey to help others too. It is an ambition she had already expressed in 2025: encouraging young people to embrace their identity and “dream without limits.” For the Marrakech-born model, that now also means classrooms and sports fields.