Model Wants Your Vote
First published in the South Wales Argus| 3rd of July 2007
A Gwent teenager is through to the semi-final of a nationwide modelling contest.
Zara Mansfield, 17, beat off competition from 15,000 other hopefuls to get down to the last 100 in Face of Divinity, a new competition launched by an international modelling agency.
The student from Abergavenny is in with a chance of winning amazing prizes such as a cover photograph on Every Model magazine and a contract worth 10,000 with the Divinity agency in London.
"I'm so excited," she said. "It would be the best thing in the world to win."
Zara has won through to the heats of the under-21 section, which take place in Birmingham in September.
If successful, she will move on to the final at London's Mayfair Hotel in November.
Supermodel Caprice and TV celebrity David Gest are set to be judges.
The new contest is open to females over the age of 13, and in a sideswipe at the 'size zero' culture, there are no height or weight restrictions.
Models will be judged on their performance on the night, but could get through to the final via a public vote.
Modelling is Zara's dream. Her mother signed her up with a London agency at the age of four.
The youngster modelled bridal wear and the latest kids' fashions for catalogues and shows in London and Wales.
A former pupil of King Henry VIII School, she came across Face of Divinity on the internet and entered by emailing a photograph of herself.
Zara, of Old Barn Way, begins a secretarial course in Coleg Gwent's Ebbw Vale campus in September.