100 Women We Love: Class Of 2018

Each one of these women, in her own unique way, is a role model who exemplifies the best of the LGBTQ community.

Lisa Berenberg

Photo by Horacio Hamlet

Model agent Lisa Berenberg has helped protect and nurture the careers of LGBTQ models since the early ‘90s from her powerful posts at New York City’s most prestigious talent agencies. Though the fashion industry is famous for celebrating gay culture, gay male agents far outnumber their lesbian counterparts. “There are very few of us,” Berenberg says. “It is a boys’ club in the truest sense; sexism in this industry is just as widespread as in the mainstream.” She works to keep the glamour alive and shimmering for other gay women in the game, who, like her, have dreamed of working in fashion since they were kids. “I wanted to be in fashion since I was eight years old hanging out at my mother’s clothing store, Wee Barbanel, in the Bronx,” she says. Berenberg is currently the Director of Women’s Board at Major Model Management, a network that enables her to serve as both role model and “gay-gent,” a term she uses with joy. “I have met many amazing women in my career and I feel lucky to be doing what I love,” she says. Lisa lives in Maplewood, N.J. with her wife and two teenage children, and is a strong supporter of their thriving local gay community. —LK


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