Inaugural poet Amanda Gorman has admitted that she is still struggling to come to terms with her new-found celebrity status after shooting to fame with her history-making performance at Joe Biden's ceremony in January.
In the months since the inauguration, Amanda, 23, has inked a major deal with Gigi Hadid's modeling agency, IMG, landed her first Vogue cover - and received an invitation from Anna Wintour to chair this year's Met Gala, arguably one of the fashion industry's most prestigious honors.
However, the Harvard graduate - who overcame a lifelong speech impediment in order to perform her poetry publicly - says that she is still suffering from imposter syndrome, noting that she feels 'like a freshman at a party with seniors' when compared to her co-chairs, Billie Eilish, Naomi Osaka and Timothee Chalamet.
'Co-chairing with Timothée, Naomi and Billie – it feels like being a freshman at a party with seniors. You know? Like I just arrived here,' she said in an interview with Porter magazine - which features the poet as its newest cover star.
'My life has changed quite recently and they are all at the top of their game, and so I’m just absorbing what it means to be able to stand beside their greatness.'
One to watch: Amanda Gorman revealed life changed overnight after reciting poetry at Joe Biden's inauguration and dished on chairing the 2021 Met Gala as she covered Porter magazine
New venture: She also touched on how feels to be a co-chair of 2021's Met Gala along with Billie Eilish, Naomi Osaka and Timothee Chalamet
Amanda revealed that she was asked to take on the role of co-chair by Vogue editor-in-chief and Met Gala chairwoman Anna Wintour, who personally called the poet via Zoom to invite her to host this year's event - which has been delayed by four months amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite her nerves about taking on the high-pressure role, she described the honor as 'groundbreaking', and said she hopes that her foray into the fashion industry will serve as the foundation for many other writers and poets to one day grace the red carpet - and earn the same kind of celebrity status that she now boasts.
Still, Amanda admits that her new-found fame has not been easy to get to grips with - despite the fact that it has already earned her a slew of lucrative brand offers.
'I'm experiencing a tectonic shift in my own world,' she noted, while admitting that it has been difficult for to adjust to living life in the limelight, particularly when so many writers thrive on their anonymity and ability to observe the world without attracting any attention.
'I think so often writers are not only used to, but dependent on the sensation that we can go out amongst life and not cause any ripples. That we can watch and observe nature or humanity and that we will be an unrecognized piece of it, and we can write that in our stories,' she explained.
'Finding out how to be a fly on the wall, when I’ve actually become the bull in the china shop, is new.'
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