On weekdays, Lesia Labunska sits at her desk in the finance department, works with numbers and documents, and lives in the rhythm of reports and deadlines. In the evening, it’s as if she switches the channel and steps into the frame as a model and actress. These two worlds go side by side, and she manages in both, keeping them within one schedule without unnecessary pathos and with a very sober sense of responsibility for her choices.

Her path into creativity did not grow out of loud dreams of fame, but out of genuine fascination. She enjoyed being in front of the camera, she liked the filming process, transformation, and that moment when you see the result. What started as a hobby imperceptibly turned into a profession, but the inner motive remained the same. For Lesia, filming is still about energy and freedom, not only about a career. Every new project for her is a separate story she needs to enter, pull herself together for, and feel the team. Days can be long, there are many looks, her legs get tired, but after such a workload she often feels better than after an ordinary office day, because it is creativity that gives her a sense of movement and growth.

Two schedules, one full life

Lesia’s timetable is the kind that could easily serve as an excuse for the phrase “I don’t have time for anything.” A full working day in the finance department, then rehearsals or shoots, coming home late in the evening. Time for herself and her loved ones has to be literally won back.

She doesn’t pretend she has already found the perfect balance. On the contrary, she speaks directly about a constant search and attempts to negotiate with reality. Next to her is a family that accepts her ambitions as a part of her life, not as a whim. Her loved ones understand: the stage and the camera are her way of being alive and collected, not a random hobby.

Lesia’s rest is down-to-earth and sincere: runs in the park near her home, books, films, meeting friends, sometimes theatre or coffee at a favourite place. An important place in her life belongs to a house outside the city where she grows flowers. It’s a counterweight to the spotlights — there beauty literally grows out of the soil, without make-up and cameras, and this silence also supports her inner balance.

Sometimes she turns on relaxing music, meditates, allows herself to spend time alone. This is not about trendy mindfulness, but about an intuitive understanding: to withstand several roles at once, you need an inner safety margin.

Beauty without quotation marks

Lesia works in an industry that for a long time reduced beauty to parameters — size, height, symmetry. Against this backdrop, her own view sounds like a soft but stubborn opposition.

For her, beauty does not begin with the body, but with character: with how a person behaves in difficult moments, what decisions they make, how they treat others and themselves. She sees beauty in actions, in the ability to overcome difficulties, in achievements that do not always appear in a social media feed.

Appearance, style, being well-groomed are important, but only as a continuation of the inner state. If a person feels comfortable in the image they have created, if joy “shines” from them, for Lesia this is already beauty — regardless of trends.

It is no coincidence that one of the key phrases she formulates about herself sounds like this:

“Beauty begins on the inside: with your actions, with how you overcome difficulties, with how honest you are with yourself.”

Behind these words there is not theory, but lived experience of work, filming, and life in a country going through a war.

A world that looks through a screen

Another area where Lesia looks at herself honestly is social media. In an era when castings, acquaintances, and even relationships often begin online, she admits: active public presence is not natural for her.

Producers and colleagues regularly remind her that Facebook and Instagram influence a career no less than a portfolio. There is irony in the fact that it was through Facebook that she was once noticed — it became an important step in her professional development.

Now Lesia is consciously “catching up” in this sphere: without aversion to social networks, but also without a cult of self-presentation. For her, this is another professional challenge that needs to be mastered, not an endless stage for self-admiration.

A woman in a country at war

When Lesia is asked about the role of a woman today, she does not speak in abstract terms — there is an obvious reference to Ukrainian realities. She sees how much responsibility has fallen on women in wartime: work, supporting the economy, helping the Armed Forces, caring for those who have lost their homes, looking after families, volunteering.

She notes that women are increasingly taking leadership positions, succeeding in film, fashion, business, without abandoning depth and emotionality. Her formula sounds like this:

“Women today are proving that they can be not only delicate, but also determined, confident, and profound. That really inspires me.”

Her own story fits into this context: Lesia does not try to fix a single image behind herself. She allows herself to be different — tired and collected, demanding of herself and at the same time compassionate towards others.

Fashion that starts listening to stories

From inside the industry, Lesia can clearly see how fashion is gradually shifting from “image for the sake of image” toward stories. She says that style changes along with the tone — there are more genuine emotions, real storylines, protagonists with a past, not only with a perfect profile.

Women increasingly influence what this fashion will be like: not only as those who buy, but also as those who create — as authors, directors, creators. For Lesia, every look in the

frame is a separate story, an opportunity to live through another emotion, to look at herself from the outside.

She does not single out a “main” or “most important” role. Every project changes something — emotionally, psychologically, and sometimes physically. She asks friends to honestly evaluate the result, to tell her where the emotion didn’t come through, where things could have been different. This is her way of growing not thanks to the myth of “talent”, but thanks to daily work.

A character that doesn’t look for easy scripts

There is a trait in Lesia that runs through her entire story — the way she treats difficult tasks. She does not wait for the perfect moment, does not put things off “for later”, but takes a challenge as a signal to move forward. Her days often look very simple and at the same time very telling: after work in the finance department she goes to rehearsal, learns something new, steps in front of the camera even when it would be easier to stay home and rest. In this way she works not only on her professional goals, but also on her own shyness, insecurity, fatigue, and does not stop when something goes off plan.

Her life principles continue this same line. It is important for Lesia to live in a way that she won’t be ashamed of her own decisions, to keep her word and not promise what she will not be able to deliver, to respect other people’s choices and not interfere in other people’s affairs without necessity. At the same time, when someone asks for help, she does not walk past and tries to be there, without excessive declarations. She looks at people through the prism of their experience, as if reminding herself every time that behind each story there is a path we do not see.

Lesia Labunska does not look like a detached “perfect picture”. She lives between office and stage, between morning runs and late rehearsals, between the everyday reality of war and the desire to create beauty that does not turn away from what is happening around. Her path is not a story of easy success, but of combining discipline, inner guidelines, and a readiness to take on difficult tasks again and again. And of a kind of beauty that does not begin with a reflection in the mirror, but with an honest conversation with yourself.