Your story is something that’s so unique but I wanted to hear it from your perspective. How did you first become a model and where were you first discovered?
I was 16 years old and my mom’s best friend had a modeling school. She asked me if I would do a course and I said okay, but didn’t give it a thought. I looked terrible, I made my own suit, and I had my hair blow-dried for the first time in a really corny style but obviously, she saw talent. I still have that photo which I won’t share with anyone. Then she booked me for runway shows on Saturday mornings because I couldn’t take time off school. And then during the holidays, she booked me for a print job and I thought, “Oh this is fun! Wow, I’m getting paid this is even more fun”.

Absolutely. And how does someone, who’s based in South Africa, eventually move to Canada and then create a career in the States? You seem like you’ve been very much a global traveler since you were younger and I know that’s the nature of the business for being a model. Was there always a spirit that you had that was dedicated to traveling the world and moving around?
No, I don’t think you can choose to travel because when you move it’s a huge pain. This is my eighth city since I’ve been an adult and eight times starting off as a model. I also have my nutrition practice, which was my favorite income as I always said my modeling was the cherries on top. In other words, I was able to support my kids, as a dietician.

Talk about this, this joint career as a dietician. What do you think models need to know about maintaining a healthy lifestyle when it comes to food?
First of all, I know it’s really hard to eat healthily because I will go on a shoot and always choose the healthy food – the salads, the whole wheat bread, the high fiber foods, and fruit. Then I will have a skinny young model next to me and she’ll eat cookies and she’s just naturally thin and you can’t fight that. I’m a size six and it’s hard enough to be a size six, which is not sample size but a great size for catalogs. Before that, I was just the original working model. Flying economy to Europe and doing catalogs but it was really nice and I was loving every bit of it. I didn’t depend on modeling.

Well, all the hard work shows. I mean your CoverGirl campaign last year was obviously a huge milestone from an outside perspective. What was your reaction to hearing you’d be a part of that campaign?
I was told that they’re considering me, but you get that a lot in modeling and models will tell you. But then they said, “We would like to meet you”. I said, “Okay…” Then I get to the meeting and they have all my photos up and they’d already decided, I was going to be a CoverGirl. It was so surreal listening to them say how they want to work with me and that. And then I walked away, I said to my agent, “Am I a CoverGirl now?” And she said well they have a contract for you. That’s not something you dream about as a model because you think it’s not ever going to happen. You can’t even think about that. So it was really weird and absolutely wonderful. But then, of course, the whole journey has been incredible.

It’s been amazing from an outside perspective because even my brief understanding of what the industry was, it always felt like it was very youth-obsessed. So to see someone, who doesn’t fit within the expected mold it brings hope to see specifically beauty brands evolving with the times and realizing their products are for everyone. Do you think fashion or culture is youth obsessed or are we now kind of evolving to this new era?
I must say from my Instagram account, I get a lot of positive comments from women of all ages saying, you give us hope, we no longer fear to age, we’re not scared of our wrinkles, thank you for what you’re doing. I even had someone say a year ago, “I can’t wait to be 71”. I thought it really gives a woman a lot more confidence about being fashionable, being confident and getting out there and not worrying about their age.

You mention social media and it’s been great to see you being a pioneer embracing it with no qualms. When Instagram and Twitter came about, were you at first intimidated or was it always something that you just naturally embraced?
As a dietician, I would give lectures around the world on how to be an entrepreneur and meet with communities and teach them how to eat well. That was easy. As a model, I never combined the two because to me modeling was more fun than serious science. I never let people know I was a model. Then my son sat down with me and opened my Instagram account and said, “You have to start posting your modeling photos”. And I said, “Ooh, I don’t like to brag, I don’t like to brag”. And as you notice I got over that very quickly.