Students who gawk at supermodels like Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner online may not realize that Chapel Hill has a model of its own strutting through its halls.
Senior Claire Woodrow has been modeling with the company Charlotte Seen for a year and a half. Her modeling endeavors have landed her gigs all over the state and even at New York Fashion Week.
Woodrow’s modeling allows her to meet and collaborate with a number of designers and fellow models. She donned Simply Jane Formals pieces for her New York Fashion Week event on September 8.
“I got to meet a lot of people who were in the same boat as me. It was really enjoyable,” she said. “At my level [of modeling], we all kind of understand where each other is coming from.”
Woodrow owes her modeling career to a spontaneous decision to get professional headshots taken.
“I kind of just decided I wanted to do it. I set up a headshot shoot with a lady who’s a photographer, and, after that, she guided me into runway,” she said. “I started out with Charlotte Seen, and I’m still walking shows for them.”
Since her debut, Woodrow has walked in 14 different shows and modeled 23 outfits. As her modeling career has grown, it has impacted her education in ways she did not see coming.
Senior Taylor McGee admires her work on and off campus. “She’s a fantastic model who works hard to balance her career and her school work,” he said.
Woodrow often misses school to participate in her modeling events, having been out of school every Friday for the first four weeks of school to do shows.
Despite these interruptions, Woodrow has managed to juggle her responsibilities as a model and a student. Nonetheless, her modeling success has raised questions about her future education.
“With college coming up, it’s kind of a toss-up between schooling and modeling, but I think I’m gonna try to do both as well as I can and see where it takes me from there,” Woodrow said.
The modeling industry as a whole has faced criticism regarding its lack of representation of different body types and ethnicities in models. Woodrow acknowledges the controversy and the changes going on in the industry.
“Being a white female who’s tall and skinny in the industry, it’s not as hard for me as it is for other people, so I can’t really speak to the difficulties that minority models and plus-sized models face,” she said. “But from what I’ve seen, it’s getting better, slowly but surely.”
While Woodrow’s forays into the world of fashion have led her to walk the runway during one of the most prominent fashion events in the world, students can still catch her walking down the halls of Chapel Hill— just maybe not on Fridays.
