Just back from Sydney, New Zealand's Top Model Danielle Hayes is preparing to take the fashion world by storm.
The Daily Post caught up with the 20-year-old while she was in Rotorua to speak at a suicide prevention hui at Houmaitawhiti meeting house this week, offering advice on supporting youth to
reach their goals.
She wasn't long off the plane from a modelling stint in Sydney with Chic Model Agency, with which she is signed and setting goals for her future as a model.
As part of her New Zealand's Next Top Model prize package, Miss Hayes won a contract with Chic and NEXT Model Agency in Los Angeles.
She plans to head to America in the next few months, and said her week in Sydney had been "full-on".
"It was huge and it was crazy," she said.
"There were 11 to 15 castings in one day. Hard work."
Miss Hayes has big plans.
She said she wanted to be walking the catwalks of Milan within two years.
"My goal in the next two years is to be working overseas in Milan, the fashion capital of the world.
"I know it won't be an easy goal and I have a lot of hard work ahead of me, but we all need goals. It's obtainable - it's just up to me."
The Kawerau woman's sense of humour and unorthodox demeanour, which got her noticed on the reality television show which has launched her career, was still to the fore as she spoke about her future.
She joked that she might consider settling down and having children when she was in her 30s, to keep her mum happy but quickly made it clear she was "just kidding really".
Miss Hayes has become a bit of an activist in her home town of Kawerau since she was dared by a friend to enter the reality show and then rose to fame by winning. She recently joined in a hikoi, marching to try to stop the Government closing schools in Kawerau, and has spoken out about suicide.
She said she knew 11 of the 14 youths from Kawerau who had committed suicide in the past 18 months.
She wanted young people to speak up and talk about their problems and wanted adults to support them unconditionally so that they could reach their goals, she said.
"Suicide is such a waste of life. Suicide is not the last option."
