I’m an Aussie model born and raised in the Gold Coast, Queensland, having started modeling when I turned 18 years old and have been modeling ever since.
Growing up, I was never really interested in modeling. I knew it was cool but never thought about it as something I would see myself doing. I am the oldest of the three girls, all 18 months apart, and my mom always had friends and family saying she should get us into modeling. It wasn’t until I turned 16 that one of my sisters started getting into photography and used me as her model to practice on. At that time, I had decided to leave school to pursue horse training. I was offered a job working 5-7 days a week at an equestrian center, riding and training approximately 5 horses a day. I took this up while also completing a cert 3 as this was a requirement from my parents if I wanted to leave school.
It wasn’t until I turned 18 and decided to go back to university to complete my year 11 and 12 equivalent course that I questioned myself: “I wonder if I can get some modeling jobs in my holidays and weekends?!” So, I put in an application with “Busy Model” on the Gold Coast to see if I could get some work while I studied. Two weeks later I signed with “Two Management” in LA and two weeks after that, I was flying to Paris to do a fitting for Givenchy. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up walking their show, but I booked Dior and Valentino shows at Paris fashion week and posed in a photoshoot for Calvin Klein the same week! It went so well that I decided to finish my university course online and continued to work overseas.
In the first 12 months of my modeling career, I had a chance to walk the runways of Dior three times and Valentino once. The coolest moment happened when I walked at the Dior show: Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, and Jennifer Lawrence were all sitting next to each other in the front row, and Cara then posted a photo of me walking down the runway to her Instagram!
At the runway show of Valentino, I met Cindy Crawford’s daughter — Kaia Gerber — and had a chat with her. She appeared to be so lovely and down to earth and very inspiring to talk to.
Growing up in Australia meant it was expensive to travel internationally, and for mom and dad with three girls, it was out of the question. Since I had never been overseas, for my 18th birthday, I decided to travel to East Timor with my family to do some volunteer work, teaching English to school kids, helping in orphanages, visiting rural hospitals, etc. This was an eye-opening experience and sparked my love for traveling and experiencing different cultures. Since I went overseas right after I started my modeling career, it meant that I could count on myself only while still being an 18-year-old. I had gone from never traveling internationally and only being on a plane maybe three times in my life to traveling to 10 different countries including Germany, France, Denmark, Spain, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Morocco, United Arab Emirates, and the United States all in just 12 months!
At the start of 2021, I signed with “Merci Management” modeling agency in Sydney and flew down to stay for 6 weeks to do castings and take part in the fashion week. Unlike the usual scenario when you get to a model apartment, my agency was quite new; therefore, they didn’t have their own apartments. So, they organized a stay with one of my agent’s friends and her son, who appeared to be two years older than me. At the end of my six weeks’ stay, I was working so much that I decided to stay in Sydney with this family for what I thought would only be two more weeks. What I didn’t realize was that the initial six weeks would end up being eight months (!) locked in Sydney with no way to get home due to the strict lockdown that we had gone into. I had no family or friends in Sydney, except the people I lived with. So, I was lucky enough to spend the lockdown time with this family, and we got along so well that now, two years later, we call each other a family!
I think being in lockdown really made me appreciate all the opportunities I had, being able to travel for work and meet so many creative people who really love their job! This made me more excited to return overseas and get back into international modeling again, as well as sparked my interest in mentoring. My agency now often refers their new models to me, those who are just starting out, so they would have a mentor who will guide them through their first steps in modeling.
In the next couple of years, after finishing my degree, I plan to continue to model and travel internationally, while working for various high fashion brands and mentoring young models to help them navigate within the modeling industry. Obviously, it’s amazing to have these goals, but my main focus will be to make sure I’m having fun on the way and continuing to strive for things in life that bring me joy and work towards making the world a better place!
