come together with... alessandra ambrosio

You’re supporting Goal 14 - Life Below Water - tell us more about where your passion for the sea comes from? 

I grew up in Brazil and spent my whole childhood playing in it. Since I was a little kid, I was always fascinated and had this love for the ocean; I was always so curious about what was underwater. Actually, before I became a model, I wanted to be an oceanographer. I spent a lot of time scuba diving in remote places in the world - it’s such a magical world full of life and we’re the ones that need to preserve that.

Having that scuba diving experience, you get a glimpse into what’s under the water and how much beauty there is. This must have had a big impact on you. 

I have had the chance to scuba dive in so many different places around the world, and to me, nothing replaces that beautiful life underneath. There’s so many different species of fish and it’s a whole different world. It’s magical. 

There is a statistic that 5% of plastic is all we can see on top of the ocean-- 95% is underwater. It’s disturbing to know that all these ecosystems are being destroyed. We’re destroying part of our world. We are the ones that have to take care of the ocean. There’s a massive problem underneath that we need to address before it’s too late. 

What drew you to #TOGETHERBAND? 

#TOGETHERBAND is really inspirational. The Global Goals really make sense to me. Then by bringing everyone together asking everyone which goal matters to them most, then sharing it with their friends and family - that makes it really personal. Everyone needs to help and do whatever they can so we can live in a world that we want to leave for our children and the next generations. To achieve the Global Goals, we need businesses, organizations and people to come together. The whole world needs to get together and think about these issues. 

What can Brazilians be doing to help protect the natural beauty of Brazil? 

I’m from Brazil and nature is so lush there - it’s so green and beautiful. The biggest thing we have in Brazil is nature; we have the Amazon and oceans surrounding us, and it’s very important to preserve that. I think everyone in Brazil should get together to preserve our country, nature, forests and oceans. If we just do a little, we would have a big impact on our culture. 

So who will you be sharing your #TOGETHERBAND with? 

I will be sharing my #TOGETHERBAND with two people. One is the actor, Adrian Grenier, because he’s really big on preserving the ocean and the work that his charity does is really nice. The second band, I want to give to my fellow Brazilian, Gabriel Medina. He’s the world surf champion and he’s doing a beautiful job. It’s very important for us to get together and take care of our oceans.