DOLLY Magazine Interviews Miranda

DOLLY: You won Dolly's Covergirl comp in 1997. Did it change your life?
MIRANDA: It opened the whole fashion world up to me. The publicity alone really made a name for me. Over the next few years, I only modelled for DOLLY, but when I moved to Sydney after school and joined an agency, I already had my name out there and pictures for my book.
DOLLY: There was alot of controversy because you were only thirteen at the time..
MIRANDA: They were blowing out of proportion. In the media at the time they were trying to cling on to anything remotely to do with paedophilia. Dolly is a magazine for teenage girls, not for old men. And I was fully clothed! Doing a winter shoot! They just made something out of nothing.
DOLLY: How do feel about the media now?
MIRANDA: The media sometimes gets things wrong. I remember reading a newspaper article saying how I saw being stalked and had to put bars on my windows...It was all just wrong!
DOLLY: What made you want to finish highschool before modelling?
MIRANDA: I think it's really important to have your education behind you. I was young and modelling was still going to be there for me when I finished school. Modelling is such a short lived career; it's not something I can live off forever.
DOLLY: What do you have planned for life after modelling?
MIRANDA: Six months ago I started studying nutrition and psychology via correspondence. My goals are to finish my course and hopefully one day open my own shop, so I can help people and heal people.
DOLLY: You get to travel the world, but do you ever miss Gunnedah?
MIRANDA: I go back there for Christmas because my grandma still lives there. It was so much fun growing up in the country. We never got bored; we rode horses and motorbikes, and we'd have picnics in a little tree house we had put the back. There was always something to do and I alway s felt really safe.
DOLLY: Do you thinkgrowing up in a small town helped you to stay down to earth?
MIRANDA: It was definitely grounding for me to grow up in a small town, but I also think it has alot to do with my parents. they have very strong morals and they've passed them on to me. My mum always said, "Miranda, the day modelling changes you is the day you stop doing it,".
DOLLY: What's a lesson you learned in your career the hard way?
MIRANDA: To get a good night's sleep before a shoot! Actually, my early days at DOLLY really opened my eyes to the modelling world. I was so young and naive, and when I got my first DOLLY shoot, I thought I got to pick my own clothes! It's funny to look back!
DOLLY: Do you consider yourself a modelling veteran now?
MIRANDA: I wouldn't say I was a veteran, but I'd say all my experience has led me to know what works and waht doesn't on a shoot. I know what angles will work on a photo, I know i have to get treatment in my hair and a facial before and after Fashion Week...expreience helps with that.
DOLLY: Is there any advice the DOLLY girls have gave you in your early days that stuck with you?
MIRANDA: Shonagh Walker, the beauty editor at the time, said to me, "You have such a beautiful soul Miranda, don't ever lose that," I've always taken that with me.