Meet Danielle Del Cueto | Model & Small Business Owner

We had the good fortune of connecting with Danielle Del Cueto and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Danielle, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risks at first have been pretty tough for me to follow through once I started to take them. I wasn’t always confident or I would overthink things too much that I eventually would just give up on what I wanted to do or pass up an opportunity. But, what I’ve learned is that if you really want/to do something, to just take that risk and go for it, because you might not get the chance to do it again. And hey, if it doesn’t work out… it just doesn’t work and to learn and try again or if it does, that’s great! Through taking risks I’ve found much success in certain things, and failures as well and I’m happy that I’ve taken a step forward with just going for what I want to do.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
With my current career, I am a Model and Small Business Owner. I had started modeling when I was 18 and really enjoy it! I was so inspired by fashion and the many models who have changed the industry standards that I wanted to pursue that as a career. I went through the wonderful Bella Modeling School in McKinney and gained the confidence, experience and joy of modeling and was signed to Icon Studios this past winter! Getting to this point was definitely challenging, as I grew up very self conscious, shy, unconfident etc. But, I learned that there’s no way I’d be able to do this job if I held myself back like that, and soon broke out of my shell with the help of my family, friends and Bella Modeling!

As for being a Small Business Owner, I had recently opened up my shop on Etsy called: OtakuNookbyDani and I design and create anime merch! As for having an anime merch store you may ask, I had become a BIG fan of anime and manga thanks to my older brothers influence and recommendation for me to start watching some shows. Before I knew it, I had fallen deeply in love with anime (now, back to talking about my business lol). Before deciding to open up a shop, I had created some of my own merchandise and designed things I loved from some of my favorite shows, because I had always loved to create and design in addition to loving modeling and fashion. I thought it was so cool to create my own designs! I had learned photoshop and started to create some more designs for myself and thought, “why not share these designs with other anime lovers?“ and decided to open up my shop! It was pretty challenging and still a little challenging to this day. Trying to figure out what people like, what type of designs to go with, what shows/characters should I do first, setting everything up, as it is just me running my busniess by myself. But, as I am still learning and continuing to think of new designs, I have had so much fun and can’t wait to share more merch I have coming soon!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
ooooh!! I think I would definatley take them to Klyde Warren Park in the afternoon because its very nice and right in the city! I enjoy whenever the food trucks are out and it a nice area to relax and just soke in a little bit of the city. I’d also take them to the Bishop Arts District. You get to enjoy the sights of the shops there and some of the art painted on some of the buildings! *also a great place to take pictures:) And for the night life, Red River! I enjoy dancing so much and going country dancing is definatley something you should do when in Texas!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are so many people who have helped me along the way and supported me! I would love to specifically dedicate this shoutout first to my parents. They have supported me in everything I’ve decided to do from a kid, up until now and have been so loving, as well as straightforward with many things that have helped me so much along the way. And I would also like to shoutout my friend group from High School! We formed around the end of our senior year and have been good friends till this day! They have always been so supportive and so happy about what I’m doing in life, which has really boosted much confidence I didn’t have before thanks to them!

Website: https://etsy.com/shop/OtakuNookbyDani?ref=search_shop_redirect

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/danidelcueto_/

Other: If you would like to check out my anime merch, you can search my shop on Etsy! Search: OtakuNookbyDani *I also listed the link to my Etsy under the website link

Image Credits
Toma Kozareva and Chelsea