Supermodel, fitness guru, businesswoman and so much more! When it comes to Jasmine Tookes, her successes are endless. Beginning her modeling career at 15, the Californian achieved the end-all-be-all of modeling – becoming a Victoria’s Secret angel in 2015. She was then selected in the 2016 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show to wear the Fantasy Bra, which was worth $3 million. Tookes has walked in endless high-end runways such as Prada, Calvin Klein, Oscar de la Renta, Tom Ford and so much more.
Most recently, the model has co-founded a new activewear brand JOJA, with her longtime friend, gym partner and co-Victoria’s Secret model Josephine Skriver. Their first collection launched in February 2022, and has continued to grow ever since.
Keep scrolling to find out more about Tookes – more on her new brand, plans to extend her family, her time when she worked at Victoria’s Secret and more.
Us Weekly: What’s your secret to your success in growing followers?
Jasmine Tookes: I think the most important thing to keep in mind when growing followers is to not do what everyone else is doing. And be really authentic to who you are. I always remind myself that people are on my page to see certain things and just to keep it really real and refreshing and exciting.
Us: Was there a pivotal moment in your life that really helped grow your followers?
JT: I think the biggest thing that helped grow my followers was when I was working with Victoria’s Secret as an angel, which I started working with them about 10 years ago. That’s kind of when social media really started to become a thing. So I think just you know, being an angel being surrounded by all the other girls walking all the Victoria’s Secret Fashion shows. I mean, they really put girls on the map and the Victoria’s Secret fans are so crazy and loving and they really helped to boost my following a lot because people were just really interested in seeing how our photoshoots went and you know how I stayed in shape and all of those kinds of things.
Us: What’s the best advice you can give on becoming an influencer?
JT: That’s kind of hard to answer because I don’t necessarily see myself as an influencer. When I started modeling, there was no social media. So you literally had to take your book, run around to the castings and actually meet people. But I guess if I were to give someone advice on getting started, I would say again, to just be authentic to who you are. Be real. Don’t try to put on a huge facade and just be honest and true with your followers.
And also, I really am careful with the things that I post on my Instagram and the things that I promote – I never want anything to come off fake and I always promote products that I really, truly love made by companies that I love. That’s super important to me because, again, people can read through anything that’s fake and I wouldn’t personally want to follow someone that puts out fake images and fake videos and things like that.
Us: What did you love about working for Victoria’s Secret?
JT: I really loved working with Victoria’s Secret for the majority of my career, just because of how much of a family it felt like and I was constantly working with my 10 best friends. We had the best time ever traveling all over the world and doing incredible photo shoots.
There was a lot of like, I guess you could say security, there where you really felt safe. I’ve never done any other job quite like it, where you just get into this routine of always seeing your family once or twice a week. It’s really nice rather than going to a shoot and seeing new faces every day. What I love most about working (or having worked with them) is the relationships that I’ve made throughout those years, these girls are some of my best friends and even were in my wedding as bridesmaids! I really appreciate the career that Victoria’s Secret was able to give me.
Us: What are three fun facts about you that no one knows?
JT: I’m pretty open with everything. I never really hide anything from anyone or the public… I love junk food, burgers, chicken tenders, pizza but that’s kind of a known thing. I feel like people know that.
Us: What has been your favorite brand collaboration?
JT: I really loved working with Hourglass Cosmetics over the last two to three years. I think their products are absolutely amazing, and their imagery is just so beautiful, timeless and very chic. They were really awesome to work with.
Us: Who (celebrity-wise) is your biggest inspiration?
JT: I think fashion wise would be that I love Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Her sense of style is just so clean, timeless and chic. And I feel like I sort of have a similar style so I always look to her for fashion inspiration.
As far as career wise… See I just really love celebrities or females overall that start their own businesses and become entrepreneurs. It’s inspiring to see other women sort of shift their career path in a new way and just never get too comfortable.
Us: What are you hoping to accomplish and/or spread the word about?
JT: I set a lot of goals. Throughout my whole career that’s something I’ve always done and it’s something that’s really important to me. My goal over the last year (February of this year) is to really help grow and nourish my brand with Josephine called JOJA. It’s a fitness brand.
Our goal is to make JOJA one of the most well-known fitness brands in the industry, and obviously that takes a lot of hard work and time, but we are super dedicated and doing anything that we can to help it succeed. And it’s been a lot of fun. There’ve been a lot of learning experiences, like we’ve had to wear all the hats of the business which has been fun. Just really seeing the brand succeed and grow is a huge goal of mine.
Us: What’s to come for JOJA?
JT: JOJA has been super exciting. We launched our first collection in January or in February, which was really exciting, and we had an amazing outcome for it being our first collection! We sold out within three to four days. Recently we launched our second seamless drop. It’s really bright, colorful and vibrant that’s perfect for summer. We wanted to do this because we have this whole idea of having an everlasting or an endless summer and just really embracing holding on to those fun moments with your friends. So it’s dropping or it will have dropped by now, end of July and it’s really again to make girls you know want to keep wearing pink, orange, blue, and yellow. Going into the month where the summer is ending to just really hold on to that happiness and friendship and overall vibe… We really hope to grow and expand JOJA into something major.
Us: Are you still in the honeymoon phase of your marriage to Juan David Borrero?
JT: Yes, I’m definitely still in the honeymoon phase and I feel like I will always be in the honeymoon phase. We take our relationship every day as if it’s the beginning and we try to keep like this really happy and loving and caring, you know, Outlook on our relationship and again, never get too comfortable. We go on date nights all the time. We love being around each other. We have the most fun when we’re with each other and I think that we have a really healthy and awesome relationship and I couldn’t ask for anything more than what do we have.
Us: Any plans to have kids? How many would you like?
JT: Definitely! I would love to have two kids. I think it’d be really nice to have a little boy and little girl but I am open to whatever God has in store for me. Yeah, super excited to go into that chapter.
Us: What is your fitness/diet like nowadays?
JT: My fitness routine has never really changed. I’ve always been really into discipline and maintaining a routine where I workout three to four times a week. I mix in doing Pilates and weight training. I do Pilates to really tone up and I feel Pilates gives you the best core muscles and abs that you can get. I’m mixing weight training because I’m on the more slender side and I really like to build muscle, build my butt size a little bit and just really form nice curves and shape. So I love mixing those two together. I love doing Pilates and I typically for lunch I love doing like a grilled chicken with rice and veggies and a fresh mixed green salad for breakfast. I’m not a huge breakfast fan so I usually will do a smoothie I do a smoothie that actually got recommended from Miranda Kerr called the Medical Medium Heavy Metal detox smoothie. It’s delicious. And it actually keeps me pretty full until lunch. And then into dinner. I love steak. I love pasta. I love tacos. I kind of like eat anything and I think it’s all about having a balanced diet. I never really watch what I eat too much because I do like to enjoy myself and enjoy life and never restrict myself from too many things. So yeah, I’m I tried to lean towards the more healthy side but I’m definitely not afraid to not.
