Stunning 15-year-old student Diya wins New Face 2014
SEE PHOTOS: She might be only 15-years-old, but at 1.82m, Diya Prabhakar, the new winner of The New Paper New Face 2014 contest, is a supermodel in the making and looking forward to walking runways around the world
8 October 2014 by Niki Bruce
The New Paper New Face contest has discovered some of Singapore’s top models and entertainers over the last 22 years of its history including Julie Tan, Vanessa Vanderstraaten and Jayley Woo, Rachel Erasmus, Kyla Tan, Pooja Gill, Nargis Musawwir, Vivien Ong and Sara Chan.
While it’s not always a given that the winner will have top model potential, 2014’s star Diya Prabhakar certainly does.
At only 15 years old, Diya is already 1.82m tall; she won $10,000 in cash and an exclusive photo shoot feature in Her World magazine which will stand her in good stead as goes after a career in modelling. “My dream is to become a model, so I want to try the international scene,” she told The New Paper in an interview after her win. “However, if that doesn't work out, I want to go junior college and see what I want to do.”
Diya is a student at Tampines Secondary School and is taking her O Levels this year, which put a bit of crimp in her modelling career – she’s been modelling in Singapore for a couple of years. “Sometimes I had to leave school early just to make it in time for the photo shoots [for New Face],” Diya explained to The New Paper. “The school had to accommodate [it].”
As for the $10,000 prize money? Diya says she hasn’t really decided what to do with it yet; “maybe I'll give it to charity but I will give it to my parents first.”
While Diya was the overall winner on the night, three more Singapore girls were acknowledged – Jasmine Sim, 21, who came second and Syiqah Marican, 19, who came third. Plus the event favourite Iman Fandi, 14, (yes, that Fandi and her mum is former top model Wendy Jacobs so you’d expect her genes to be good) was “happy but shocked” to win two additional titles – Miss Popularity, with 29 per cent of the 10,000 votes, and New Look Miss Fashionista.
For more information about The New Paper New Face contest, go to
www.tnp.sg/new-face-2014. You can check out photos from the event on its Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/thenewpapernewface and follow it on Instagram at @TNPnewface.
http://www.herworldplus.com/fashion/updates/stunning-15-year-old-student-diya-wins-new-face-2014
