F  L  A  U  N  T

 From walking the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show at age 22 to growing up the daughter of controversial former Major League Baseball player Jose Canseco, Josie Canseco has had her fair share of time in the public eye. But a famous last name won’t get you everywhere, and Canseco knows it. The now 24-year-old model prides herself on her work ethic, shooting campaigns for a variety of major brands and starring in shoots for Harper’s Bazaar Mexico, Chinese Vogue, Numéro Russia, Maxim and fine arts photographer David Yarrow. Recently, Canseco has become an official brand ambassador for Alo Yoga, which sees her regularly posting in the athletic wear for her over 1.2 million Instagram followers. She also uses her social platform to support animal rights issues both locally and internationally. Flaunt caught up with Canseco to see what she’s been up to as the world slowly returns to... normal... kind of?

So, how have you been? How’s the month of September been for you? How are you feeling about your career right now? Well, September, in general, is amazing. I love fall. And I had a really, really nice summer this year with COVID kind of letting up a little bit and more and more businesses are opening up, which is great. Fall really is my my favorite time of the year with Halloween providing a good opportunity to dress up and get together. In regards to my career, I’m hungry and really eager to get back to work. I think that pretty much for everyone, COVID really put the brakes on everything and I was in a really, really incredible place before COVID and picking up momentum, so coming to an abrupt stop was quite a shock I just love to work. I love to be busy. I love the industry I get to work in, specifically on the fashion side in New York. I just really miss the momentum I had over there but I have a great team there and we are planning on making up for lost time.

Do you have any exciting projects coming up? There’s a bunch of things coming up. I’d say the most recent was a music video with Myke Towers, who’s a really big Puerto Rican artist. The video was directed Brad Furman (City of Lies, The Infiltrator, The Lincoln Lawyer) and it was really incredible to work with him. I also started working with a local (Silverlake CA) animal charity called The Real Bark an animal shelter which has made a name for itself with the incredible rehabilitation work it does with dogs in particular who have been viewed as being "Tough Cases" by other organizations around the state and country.

I saw on Instagram that you’re posting with yoga brand Alo. How has that collaboration been for you? What would you say is one of your favorite campaigns that you’ve done recently? Alo is one of my favorite brands in general and it really fits into my lifestyle. I am very active, play sports and work out daily so clothes that support that kind of routine are great. They’ve actually been by my side and in my corner since I was 18. I shot my first campaign for them then and I’ve shot maybe four or five of them since.

And what would you say are some of your long-term modeling goals, dreams for 2022? Well, my dream job coming into modeling was definitely the Victoria’s Secret show, but the more and more I dive into fashion, the more I see how wide of a range of work there is there. I’ve developed a passion for the fashion side where there’s so many incredible creative directors working alongside brilliant designers each with their own take on what fashion is, that working at that level all the time is what I’d like to aim for. And goals? I mean, I don’t know if my goals ever stem from a career standpoint. I’m a very hard worker and I have a strong work ethic, but I just really want to make sure that when I’m pushing myself to travel and work and do whatever I need to do, that I’m taking care of me and maintaining a balanced life. So after a year and half of forced stoppage because of COVID, I had no choice but to think about where I was, where I wanted to go, and what was really important, and I have to admit that for my mental health and focus, that down time proved to be a blessing in disguise. I’m just hoping now that when things get back into chaos mode that I hold onto that focus and remain happy and balanced. ‘Cause that’s the most important part about all of this, just being happy with what you’re doing as you’re doing it.’

Have you picked up any new hobbies or self-care practices? I grew up playing tennis a bit, I actually grew up playing almost every sport and tennis was just one that I really loved. I thought it would be a really nice time to pick that up, so I started playing tennis again. I also really, really love to paint and so I’ve been painting a lot and some folks have expressed interest in selling the paintings for charity so that is even more fun. These are more than fun for me though, they are therapeutic coping mechanism. I think those are probably the main two that I’ve really picked up, and probably once a week as well, my girls and I just have a cute little night. I relish my alone time too, maybe that’s because I’m kind of stuck in this quarantine mode. I find myself just not really wanting to leave home unless I absolutely have to. In a good way though. I’m just growing up. I’m 24, 25 almost. So I just like to mind my business and keep my energy to myself.

Photographed by Andi Elloway
Styled by Soaree Cohen
Hair: Will Carillo at The Rex Agency
Makeup: Alyssa Fall
Location: TruFusion West Hollywood
Filmmaker: Karl Richter
Written by Olivia Novato