Model, 13, signs US contract

Posted by mija on Jul 4, 2008 in News | 0 comments

IT’S been nine months since the global media pounced on the controversial decision to name 12-year-old model Maddison Gabriel as the ‘face’ of Gold Coast Fashion Week.
Now just three months from turning 14, Maddison is taking on the world.
The freckle-faced teen has just been signed with Elite in New York, one of the world’s leading modelling agencies, and will go to the US at Christmas.
She is in Paris on a family holiday and taking the chance to meet agents reportedly interested in representing her once she turns 16.
Earlier this year, Maddison joined the books of Tamblyn Models in Brisbane which is now her ‘mother’ agency, and has also set her up with Sydney’s highly respected Chadwick’s.
Tamblyn spokeswoman Sallie Tamblyn said Maddison had enormous moneymaking potential overseas, and the agency was helping with her career development.
Ms Tamblyn said a Cairns model barely 16 years old had just returned from a month in New York and had earned close to $US20,000.
Speaking from Paris yesterday, Maddison told The Bulletin she was ‘really excited’ about plans to travel to the US in her end-of-year school holidays and begin working in the industry.
“I can’t wait to see what will happen while I am there.”
It’s a far cry from the teen hiding away in her home from national and international media when the debate was raging over her Gold Coast Fashion Week involvement last year.
Everyone from then prime minister John Howard to US talk show hosts made comment on the issue of young teenagers entering the modelling industry, with Maddison and her mother Michelle caught in the middle.
* Demelza Reveley, 16, last night won the final of TV’s Australia’s Next Top Model during the live show from Sydney’s Luna Park, beating 21-year-old Sydney student Alexandra Girdwood.
Despite being one of the most controversial figures on the show as the head of a group of bullies, the Australian public voted her the clear winner.
Before the announcement, Mr Reveley apologised for her onscreen behaviour.
source: goldcoast.com.au