After checking out Raja Syn’s Instagram feed – full of uber-sexy photos and videos that have helped the influencer gain more than 300,000 followers in just a year – it’s hard to imagine her curling up with a good book.
But that’s one of the things she likes to do when she has a little down time. “I’m a really big bookworm,” said Raja, who kicked off her Instagram career after reading the personal finance book “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” which inspired her to work for herself rather than work to help someone else amass wealth. “I like to read lots of philosophy and finance books.”
She also enjoys music, particularly island-inspired styles such as reggae, soca, and dancehall., and is also a big fan of hip-hop legend Nicki Minaj. Raja has also started dating, putting some emphasis on her social life after years of hard work.
Work is in Raja’s blood still, work is the driving force for this Jamaican-born beauty who was raised by her grandparents and mother in the cities of Brooklyn and Baltimore. “When I’m not working, I’m most likely still working,” she said. “I’m a very determined person, so when I have a goal set in my mind, it’s the only thing I’m thinking about.”
That work includes regular workouts to keep her body, her instrument, toned and sculpted. “I go to the gym every day,” she said. “I am 100 percent natural, no surgery. Everything is genetics, but I perfect my image in the gym.”
She considered a career in foreign language before realizing that higher education wasn’t for her. She got a jump on other high school grads – she graduated from high school a year early and left college after a semester – by moving to California when she was just 17. Making a bold move was meant to be she was bold and she was hungry, an absolute recipe for success.
“I decided to take influencing seriously,” said Raja. Within a year, loyal followers vaulting her up the Instagram influencer ladder, she was looking at other ways to work in the entertainment industry both alongside and after modeling.
“I aspire to be a TV personality with my own show,” she said, channeling Heidi Klum (“Project Runway”), Tyra Banks (“America’s Next Top Model”), and other supermodel success stories. “I plan on writing my own book soon. I can sing too, but I’m not really focused on a music career. It might happen. Right now, I’m just moving wherever the universe takes me.”
Her earlier jobs, including a summer youth gig planting trees and working in a garden and a stint at a vegan restaurant, both in Baltimore, are appearing very far in the rearview mirror these days.
