A Snapshot of Linsay Kendall
By Nicole Lachance @2nicolebellavita
Linsay is a person of such depth and dimension that everything she touches comes to life. Her smile is wide and real, and there is a glow about her that is kind and inviting. She is a capable woman of quality, integrity and substance. In speaking with her, I was able to perceive not only the artist, but the side of her that is a mother, with a heart that beats for her children, and a sense of character that will take her anywhere in life that she wants to go.
She was born in High Prairie, Alberta, to a Cree father and a white mother, and she explains having often experienced a kind of imposter syndrome, not feeling as though she fully belonged in either world. A member of the Sucker Creek First Nation, Linsay grew up on a reserve in Northern Alberta. She describes herself as having been “a shy Rez girl,” being too scared to dream of doing anything big. When Linsay was discovered at West Edmonton Mall by Derek Jagodzinsky, the creator of LUXX Ready-to-Wear in 2008, that was when she saw herself enter a whole new world.
Then known as Linsay Willier, she first walked in Western Canada Fashion Week (WCFW) in 2008, and when she discovered that she had the potential to become a fashion model, that she actually had a good runway walk, this opened her eyes to see that she had things to offer, that she was interesting in different ways that she had not understood before that moment in time. Linsay says that WCFW puts on an amazing show, with such great energy, inclusivity and positivity, and it has always felt like home to her. For the very first time, in the fashion world, Linsay felt that she wholly belonged, as opposed to straddling two competing lines.
Q: Did WCFW change how you look at yourself?
A: WCFW inspired me to call myself an artist.
Walking the runway at WCFW is what first inspired Linsay to start to call herself an artist; WCFW planted the seed within Linsay that grew and blossomed into the career of model/actress/producer that she has worked so diligently to build for herself. She says that if she hadn’t walked in WCFW, then she never would have had the courage to audition for Canada’s Next Top Model (CNTM), and she would not have pursued a career in acting and producing.
Q: What impact has WCFW had on your life?
A: I would not have had this kind of career, or been as successful on CNTM, had it not been for WCFW having given me the confidence to hone my modeling skills in a safe place.
When asked what kind of an impact WCFW has had on her life, Linsay is emphatic that she would not have had this kind of career without the help of WCFW, which gave her the confidence to move forward and pursue her career goals. Before she could fully commit to competing on the third season of Canada’s Next Top Model back in 2009, she first had to overcome an obstacle that the other contestants didn’t have to face. Canada’s Next Top Model was set to start filming partway through Linsay’s final semester of her Child and Youth Care Program at Grant MacEwan University. Since Linsay’s post-secondary education was paid for through her band, she didn’t want to waste that opportunity. If she had dropped out of university, her funding would have been terminated, so dropping out was not an option for her. To work around this, Linsay powered through her courses at an accelerated pace, so that she could complete her last semester of classes in two weeks, as opposed to four months. Her tenacity and her determination to succeed enabled her to earn her Bachelor’s Degree and still pursue her dream of modelling. The skills that Linsay learned at WCFW, and her ability to believe in herself, enabled her to be the finalist of CNTM.
Q: What advice would you give to the newer models at WCFW today?
A: I would tell them: “I hope you are doing this out of genuine passion and not for validation. If you’re looking for validation, there is no longevity in that.”
When I ask Linsay what advice she would give to her younger self, her reply is that she would tell herself to believe in herself more. She waited too long, and it took too much of other people telling her that she could do it, before she recognized inside of herself that, yes, she could do it, she could achieve things on her own.
Q: What advice would you give to your younger self?
A: I would tell her to believe in herself more.
When I ask how she transitioned from modeling into acting and producing, Linsay says that every time she would think about acting, it just scared her. Maybe she was afraid of trying acting and failing, because acting had been a career that she had secretly wanted to pursue for a long time, but she didn’t believe that she could do it. She started the audition process for the second season of CNTM, and she quit, she didn’t go through with it, and she had regretted that decision. She promised herself that she would try again. Her audition for the third season of CNTM, which aired in 2009, was successful. Linsay believes that she won the runway challenge at CNTP because of the time that she spent developing her walk at WCFW. She also competed in the Miss Universe Canada competition in 2011, where she won the Peoples’ Choice Award.
Drawing from her own positive life experiences, and from her time at WCFW, as well as her challenges along the way, in 2009 she created Dreams in Motion, and put on confidence-building workshops for all youth. This was her way of trying to inspire other young people to find their voice, to find their place in the world. All of this preamble eventually led her to study acting at the Vancouver Academy of Dramatic Arts, which opened her up to the world of television acting and producing.
On the personal side, Linsay and her fiancé Levon Kendall, a Canadian basketball star, are building a life together in Vancouver. She is proud to tell me that she is a traditional Fancy Dancer, and that she played hockey all through high school. Even now, she plays on a team called Babes on Blades. For this couple, staying active is part of living a vibrant life. While I wish that I could tell you Linsay’s life is a complete fairy tale, I cannot, because her family has been touched by tragedy. Her stepson Skyler, now aged 7, has had brain cancer, surgery and radiation, and this all happened within their family in 2019, when their daughter Veda, now 3, was an infant. Thankfully, Skyler is in remission now, and hopefully, he will lead a long and healthy life. Listening to Linsay tell their story, there is so much maturity behind her voice, and a motherly concern that truly speaks to her character. She is not full of herself, she is not boastful, and it is clear that even with all of the glamour surrounding her career, the place where she is a true superhero is within her home and family, and she and Levon are planning a wedding next summer.
Linsay still models, but what is different now is that over the last several years, Linsay has had numerous film and television roles, and the work just keeps on coming. Most recently, she was brought on board as an actor and producer of Sisters of Sorrow, which is her favourite role so far: She plays a dark female superhero.
However, Linsay won’t stop there. She is currently training to be a Reiki healer, as she feels very drawn to this type of energy healing. In fact, on the day of our interview, she had a modeling shoot in the morning, followed by a four-hour Level One Reiki training class. One thing is certain, that Linsay’s career will be constantly evolving, and that she continues to find new ways to challenge herself; this woman is moving forward in perpetual motion. Perhaps you could say that she started walking at WCFW, and she has never stopped.
You can find Linsay on Instagram @linsay.kendall
Written by Nicole Lachance @2nicolebellavita