I grew up in Slovenia – a beautiful place, but not a place where the idea of fashion was treated as a real career. For most people there, beauty and aesthetics are hobbies, nice extras, accessories to “real life”. Before modeling, while at school, I was a skinny girl, and not in a way that helped me socially. It was something people commented on constantly, not as admiration but as a judgement. So, when I entered modeling, it was the first environment, aside from my family, where the way I naturally looked wasn’t considered as “wrong” and wasn’t judged. I felt relieved. Modeling did not turn me into some kind of an astonishing beauty but it allowed me to live without judging the body I live in. It gave me neutrality.
Of course, the reality of modeling industry is not a glamorous perfection. Sometimes, it’s a collection of absurd little moments that make you laugh later. I still remember one of my early runway castings: I was so anxious that I literally forgot how to walk. My brain blanked. My arms and legs started moving on the same side at the same time, like I was glitching. I still remember the faces of the panel watching me like: “Is she okay?!” And of course I did not get the job on that show, but that moment taught me something that stayed with me – or at least, something I’m still learning: “humiliation” doesn’t kill you. It was a good start to realize that. In modeling, moments like this happen often, we’re all human, after all.
And the compliments here are just as surreal as the humiliations: more than once, people told me I might be “too pretty to be a good model”. In the normal world, beauty is simple. In fashion, beauty is almost philosophical. What I learned in the past 10 years is that being pretty is not enough. In fact, being pretty can even be a disadvantage if it limits transformation. Fashion can put you in a box – once people see you in a certain way, it’s hard for them to imagine you as someone else.
I started traveling eight years ago, and it changed me more than modeling itself ever could. The job took me across cultures, and each new place taught me something new about people and how to adapt fast. Traveling alone, constantly meeting new faces, finding balance in unfamiliar places – it all shapes you. Somewhere along the way, I learned how to enjoy my own company, how to find comfort in little rituals, like sitting in a favorite café, or in a quiet park on a blanket with a book in hand.
In Milan, there was a small, cozy pizza place where I used to go alone after castings or fittings. Over time, the waiters started to recognize me and already knew what I was going to order. It became a quiet ritual – me, a plate of perfect food, alone in a foreign city, simple moments of joy. That’s what modeling gave me beyond the photos and clothes: the experience of being on my own, building small worlds wherever I went, and slowly discovering my adulthood.
One of my trips gave me something else just as meaningful: a friend for life. I was having a hard day and I remember sitting in the model apartment in that heavy depressing mood. And then a new girl entered like a ray of sunlight – full of energy, optimism, and with a big smile. I remember thinking, “Great! That’s exactly what I need now!” She asked what modeling in Italy was really like, and I answered honestly – sarcastic, realistic, borderline bitter because of my mood. I thought she would judge me for it. To my surprise, she said it was refreshing to finally hear the truth, and somehow, we instantly understood each other. And that unexpected human openness led to some of the most beautiful days of my life living in that city. We explored, made memories, laughed, grew closer – and that friendship still lasts today. Modeling brings you in front of thousands of faces and yet sometimes only one person is enough to change the meaning of this journey.
I had worked and lived in many cities, but Paris always felt different and special to me – like it was meant to be part of my story before I knew it. And so, I moved here two years ago. Paris did something for me that I never expected from the fashion path: it brought me closer to the world of art and taught to see art differently – as a way to think, a way to live, and it resonated with me because I have always been that girl who loved aesthetic harmony.
The most valuable of what modeling gave me – was not a glamour or an identity but the direction, the opportunity to find the places where I belong and the worlds where my natural romantic nature isn’t considered strange or naive!
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