“When I first started out, no one thought I would make it because I looked so unusual compared to other models,” she says. “There had never been a top model who looked like me.”

But for people like Wek, arguably South Sudan’s most famous daughter, there are still barriers to be broken down.

A bloody civil war led her to flee her native country at age 14 and take refuge in the United Kingdom. Four years later she got her big break when a modelling scout discovered her in a South London park.

At the time, there were no supermodels like Wek on the scene. Her distinctive looks, typical of the Dinka people – the predominant ethnic group of South Sudan – seemed to be at odds with the fashion world’s idea of beauty.

But rewriting the history books is what Wek is all about.

It was not long before she was adorning the covers of fashion magazines like Vogue and Elle and designers around the world wanted her as the face of their brands.

Her ethos is clear, “Children should never think ‘I can’t do that,’ just because no one else like them is doing it,” she says. ““From my childhood in South Sudan to my unconventional ‘look’ in the fashion industry, I’ve faced many barriers to get where I am today. However, the relentless pursuit of my dreams helped me to defy these imposed limits and create meaningful progress within the fashion industry.”

When asked about her partnership with Samsung on the shoot, she says, “I appreciate Samsung’s status as a relentless innovator in their industry. They’re not afraid to be the first or to be a pioneer.”

Wek believes technology makes the world a connected and unified place. She says, “It enables us to keep moving forward and bring awareness to meaningful causes while empowering people across the globe to break their own personal barriers and defy limitations.”

Check out the stories of fellow innovators Kelli Samuelson, female cycling pioneer, and Henrik Vibskov, artistic Renaissance man, also featured in this series.

For Kelli Samuelson, carving new niches has become second nature.

Life has thrown her plenty of curveballs, but in overcoming them, Kelli has ventured into unchartered territory for female riders and set the stage for other barrier-breaking females.

An aspiring professional with dreams of competing at the top level of the sport, a hip injury found late in life has given her some serious setbacks. The injury required reconstructive surgery and a lengthy rehabilitation that put her dreams on hold.

Undaunted, however, she used her time away from the road to do something she truly believed in –finding a place for women in the traditionally male-dominated cycling world.

As the team owner of LA Sweat, the groundbreaking California-based women’s road cycling team, she says she knew right from the start that her quest to create a community for female bicycle enthusiasts would be fraught with challenges. After all, for so many, cycling clubs are very much a man’s world.

Yet she refused to be daunted by the scale of what she wanted to do. “I wanted to do it differently,” she explains. “Rather than waiting for someone else to fix it, I decided to do it myself.”

This was the thinking that spurred the creation of LA Sweat in 2015. Within a year of its establishment, the club’s roster already boasts Northern California’s 2015 Best-All-Around Rider and a two-time Mardis de Lachine winner, as well as scores more passionate female cyclists.

Kelli said “To me, breaking barriers means being who you are and not accepting the limits imposed on you by daring to defy anything that stands in the way of what you want to achieve! I refuse to be defined by a single label but rather choose the freedom of following whatever inspires my passion.”

She said technology enables her to go beyond boundaries because it allows her to capture and share what makes her feel limitless and can also inspire others to break through their own barriers, no matter who they are.

When asked what she especially liked about Galaxy S7, she said “When you spend your day on a bike, the world rolls by quite quickly. That’s why I am especially obsessed with the super-fast autofocus on the Galaxy S7’s camera. No matter my RPM, I know that it will capture me crossing the finish line in perfect clarity! Plus, it does the same even on late night rides.”

The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge are devices designed with people like Kelli in mind, individuals for whom thinking outside of the box is a way of life. So, no matter what road you race down in life, Samsung enables you to capture every memory as clearly as the moment and empowers you to live life beyond barriers. As Kelli says, “Technology enables people to push past their boundaries and capture what makes them feel limitless! Personally, I love sharing my story with people everywhere so they can also be inspired to break through their own barriers, no matter what.”

Check out the stories of fellow innovators Henrik Vibskov, artistic Renaissance man, and Alek Wek, South Sudanese supermodel, also featured in this series.

To let the world know about the launch of the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, Samsung has been putting on many high-profile and exciting events around the world, from the “Beyond Barriers” Galaxy Unpacked event  at MWC 2016 to Samsung Experience Stores and Galaxy Studios that opened around the world on March 11. But in Ireland, the new Galaxy devices made an especially spectacular entrance: by jetpack.

On March 9, Nick Macomber—aka JetpackMan—flew by jet pack over Dublin’s Ha’Penny Bridge, landing on a pontoon on River Liffey. Once he landed, Nick presented a brand new Galaxy S7 to Irish model Thalia Heffernan. It was an entrance as exciting and unconventional as the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge themselves.