Calderwood six-year-old Arabella Raptis has already conquered the billboards of Times Square - twice - and has now got her eye on the runways of New York fashion week.
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The ambitious Year 1 student from The Illawarra Grammar School has been competing in pageants since she was four, and has now set her sights on runway modelling.
Her mum, Teisha Davitt, says it all started as a "bit of fun" for the little girl who loved dancing and got into doing pageants by accident.
"One of my friends was doing it, and they got to dress up," Ms Davitt said. "Arabella saw all the pretty glitzy costumes and thought, 'Oh, I'll give it a go.'
"But then she started doing runway, that's when she realised that's what she wants to do. So at the moment we have a very determined six-year-old who wants to be a runway model - and a vet."
Ms Davitt said her daughter found success in a Queensland-based runway competition called Radiance Runways which meant she would now be going to walk on runways in Paris and Milan in September.
"We thought we'll go up to Queensland because she does a bit of pageantry and stuff like that and loves modelling," she said.
"She'll have some fun, meet some new friends, and then she ended up winning her age group and a lot of opportunities have come from it."
This included being selected to be a featured model with dressmaker Belle Le Chic, which is how the Times Square billboards came about.
Ms Davitt said Arabella was thrilled to see her name and picture up in lights.
"She's like, 'I need to go to New York, I want to walk in New York'," she said.
"So that's the next goal - walk on a runway in New York."
Arabella also plays the violin and does dancing, which means her schedule is packed even without the jet-setting around for her modelling commitments.
"For [the Belle Le Chic] photoshoot, on the Friday all day in the middle of Sydney there was a practice for a runway event, and then we jumped on a plane, went for this photoshoot all day Saturday, a half photoshoot Sunday and were then straight back on a plane, and she went for a fashion show on Sunday night in Sydney," Ms Davitt said.
"But she just keeps going."
"With dancing, sometimes she'll be like, 'Oh, I'll have a day off or I'll have a rest'. But if it's anything to do with runway or a photo shoot, she is all in. When it comes to runway and photo shoots, that is just a passion."
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
