A senior at Central Lake High School is headed to the Big Apple for a pretty amazing opportunity—modeling at New York Fashion Week.
“I’m looking forward to the experience,” Desiree Herrst said. “Modeling was never a door I thought was going to be open to me.”
Desiree started doing pageants 11 years ago, winning first runner up, and even a national title.
“I’ve learned a lot of stage presence from being in pageants,” she said. “You have to have poise and grace and really try not to fall.”
Now, because of her title with America’s Elegant Miss pageant, she has the chance to model for New York Fashion Week.
“I am representing the clothing line Charjean Couture,” Desiree said. “It was started by my 14-year-old friend who is one of my sister queens. A portion of her proceeds from New York Fashion Week will go to her charity Katie’s Little Angels, which helps NICU families and those who have just graduated out of the NICU.”
Her mom, Rebecca James, is extremely proud of how far she’s come.
“When she was 10 she took modeling lessons and she dropped out she didn’t want to do them anymore and I didn’t understand why,” Rebecca said. “It wasn’t until New York popped up that she told me that at 10 years old, they told her to give up on her dream because she didn’t have the body for it.”
“It’s awesome for her to be the one picked to walk in New York Fashion Week to show everybody that she’s made it,” she said.
Now Desiree and her mom raising money to help get her there.
“We’ve been doing a bottle and can drive,” Desiree said. “We also have a GoFundMe page.”
Desiree is excited to learn more about stage presence and do a little sightseeing, but most of all she wants to set an example for others.
“Being able to model at New York Fashion Week actually allows me to tell people that you can do anything if you put your mind to it with a little bit of hard work and effort,” she said.
You can donate to Desiree’s campaign or message her to coordinate bottle drop offs.
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