#ThisisWhat
Asexual
LooksLike
Co-launching the world’s leading asexual awareness campaign with British model Yasmin Benoit
SINCE THE FORMATION OF THE LGBTQIA+ ACRONYM IN THE
LATE 1980S, MOST MAINSTREAM SPACES HAVE BEEN DOMINATED BY THE FIRST FIVE LETTERS.
For decades, the inclusion of the “A” has been debated. Some insisted it stood for “ally,” while others questioned whether asexual and aromantic people even belonged. But there are more asexual people than you might think - approximately 1% of the population falls on the ace spectrum.
Enter alternative British model Yasmin Benoit.
As a Black woman who embraces body-conscious, expressive fashion, Yasmin challenges narrow assumptions about what asexuality looks like. “People tend to associate asexuality with nerdy white kids,” Yasmin told DIVA. “Women like me will continue to be dismissed as unlovable, ugly, frigid and boring. This is especially true for Black women, who are so hypersexualized, that to be a Black asexual woman seems entirely contradictory to people,” She shared in Glamour.
In 2019, Yasmin reached out to Qwear looking for a platform to dismantle asexual stereotypes.
We supported Yasmin in honing her message and amplifying her voice, drawing from a branding agency approach.
Yasmin’s resulting article series and hashtag, #ThisIsWhatAsexualLooksLike, quickly grew into the world’s leading asexual visibility campaign.
Yasmin’s inner spread in the Qwear Pride 2025 Zine
“The British activist is arguably now the best-known asexual advocate in the world,” wrote Queerty. Yasmin won an Attitude Pride Award in 2021 and “Campaigner/Influencer of the Year” at the Rainbow Honours in 2022.
Yasmin Benoit published 10 style pieces on qwearfashion.com, each spotlighting a different facet of asexual identity—Black, femme, and beyond. The campaign features individuals wearing everything from mesh tops, metallic skirts, and dramatic eyeliner to leather jackets, faux fur coats, and glittery heels, proving that expressing your full aesthetic self and being asexual are not mutually exclusive.
“On one side of the coin, it’s thought that people come to identify as asexual because they’re too unattractive to get a partner. On the other side, if you’re not trying to sexually attract someone, you should try to blend into the background and dress in a way that doesn’t attract attention. Who’ve you got to impress? We shouldn’t feel the desire to dress up — to wear flattering clothes and highlight our best features — because we’re not trying to entice anyone. This assumes that people dress to please others and not themselves.” Yasmin shared in her debut Qwear article.
By decentering sex and romantic relationships, Yasmin offers a transformative lens for people of all sexualities to reconsider what gives life meaning. “We live in a society obsessed with relationships; where to love and be loved by another person is not only the ultimate aspiration, but the expectation,” Yasmin Benoit published in Glamour Magazine. “I don’t need a partner to complete me – I’m complete just the way I am.”
In 2024 Yasmin was featured in the most unlikely of places: PlayBoy. She shared, “It had never made sense to me why a women’s value was based on how she existed during the times men found her attractive.”
In 2022, Yasmin launched the ‘Stonewall x Yasmin Benoit Ace Project’ in partnership with Stonewall. Together, they released the UK’s first report into asexual discrimination, which has been described as ‘groundbreaking.’ That same year, she opened NYC Pride as their first asexual grand marshal.
“There’s no one way to dress as a certain [sexual] orientation,” Yasmin said to DIVA. “Asexuality is no different. There’s no rule about how much skin you can and can’t show, how tight your clothes can be, or the shape of the fabric. When someone sexualises what you’re wearing, that has nothing to do with you. I could be covered head to toe and someone would have a fetish for that. You can’t go through life worrying about people sexualising what you do.” In 2021, Yasmin co-founded International Asexuality Day (April 6). She became the first asexual person to appear on the cover of Attitude Magazine.
Yasmin receives hate comments and DMs every day. Navigating that level of harassment hasn’t been easy, but she’s never backed down from being visible. Her relentless courage in showing up again and again makes her a beacon of strength and resistance for the entire LGBTQIA+ community.