Samantha Harris

[Gazillion]

Just a reminder! tomorrow Sep 5th, Samantha and some young models will be on Today Tonight at 6:30pm on Channel 7 errr i need to work tomorrow night
this girl wants to be the next supermodel badly. so remember to watch the show...

 

[Saracita]

She reminds me of Adriana and Katja, but still very unique. And prettier than those two. I like this girl a lot.

 

[fleur137]

Just a reminder! tomorrow Sep 5th, Samantha and some young models will be on Today Tonight at 6:30pm on Channel 7 errr i need to work tomorrow night
this girl wants to be the next supermodel badly. so remember to watch the show...

really?? don't usually watch tt but i'll make an exception tonight!

 

[fleur137]

here's an article from fashionmag. i know it's in french. anyone care to translate?

Samantha Harris, 16 ans, premier top-modèle aborigène
SYDNEY, 1 sept 2006 (AFP) - Elle a tout juste 16 ans, d'immenses yeux bruns et une bouche à se damner: l'Australienne Samantha Harris est en chemin pour devenir le premier top-modèle international aborigène, offrant une image positive à une communauté plus identifiée à alcool, violence et pauvreté.

Samantha Harris - Photo : AFPOriginaire de la Gold Coast, la très touristique "Côte d'Or" dans l'est du pays, elle a déja travaillé pour la plupart des grands créateurs australiens. Derrière l'objectif du photographe Patrick Demarchelier, elle a récemment posé à New York pour le magazine Glamour.

Cette semaine, la sylphide sera à Fidji avant de participer le mois prochain à la semaine de la mode en Nouvelle-Zélande.

Samantha a été remarquée lors d'une campagne pour la première chaîne de grands magasins australiens, David Jones, en février.

Depuis, la jeune aborigène voit se dérouler les tapis devant elle.
"Je suis vraiment fière de mes origines. J'ai envie de bien faire pour ma culture et pour ma famille", confie la jeune fille, issue d'une mère aborigène et d'un père allemand, mécanicien.

"Elle a réellement le potentiel pour devenir une superstar internationale", estime pour sa part Kathy Ward, responsable de l'agence Chic Management, qui s'occupe de Samantha.

"L'agence avec laquelle nous sommes associés à New York voudrait l'avoir tout de suite, mais notre philosophie est que les filles finissent d'abord leurs études. Après ça, Samantha aura tout pour réussir", assure-t-elle.

Un sentiment partagé par le journal Sydney Morning Herald, qui a écrit ce mois-ci que Samantha Harris "était sur le point de devenir le premier top-modèle aborigène de la planète".

Un destin sous les projecteurs peu commun dans cette communauté, où alcool, violence et pauvreté sont souvent le lot quotidien.

Les Aborigènes vivent en Australie depuis au moins 40 000 ans mais ils forment aujourd'hui une minorité d'environ 470 000 personnes sur une population totale de 20 millions.

La plupart vivent dans des campements sordides installés dans les coins les plus isolés du pays alors que l'Australie connaît une croissance économique sans précédent et que sa douceur de vivre fait rêver.

Samantha Harris a pris conscience en grandissant que les filles aborigènes avaient rarement l'occasion de voir une image positive de leur communauté dans les médias.

"Je n'y faisais pas trop attention en étant petite", affirme-elle, se disant "vraiment fière" d'être maintenant considérée comme un exemple.

Samantha figure d'ailleurs parmi les lauréats potentiels d'une cérémonie nationale, qui distingue chaque année des personnalités de la communauté aborigène pour leur contribution au sport et aux arts et spectacles.

Peut-être marchera-t-elle sur les traces de l'athlète olympique Cathy Freeman, qui avait obtenu cette récompense en 2003. A moins qu'elle ne rêve plutôt de devenir la nouvelle Elle MacPherson, la sculpturale mannequin australienne, surnommée "The Body".

Par Kate BARTLETT

 

[leggy_e11e]

Here's the translation as best as I could get it

Samantha Harris, 16, first top Aboriginal model.
SYDNEY – 1 September

She is only 16 years old, with huge brown eyes and a mouth which will damn her (i.e. her mouth is very seductive and pouty!); but Australian, Samantha Harris is on track to becoming the first top Aboriginal model. This gives the Aboriginal image a positive boost, as theirs is a community most identified with alcohol, violence and poverty.

Originally from the very touristy Gold Coast on the east coast of Australia, she has already worked for most of the big Australian designers. Fulfilling a goal of being photographed by Patrick Demarchelier, she has recently shot [an editorial] in New York for Glamour magazine.

This week, the sylph (waif) will be in Fiji before participating next month in New Zealand Fashion Week.

Samantha was chosen for the David Jones’ (biggest Australian department store chain in Australia) campaign in February.

Since then, the young aboriginal has been seeing the carpet roll out in front of her.

“I am very proud of my origins. I want to do something good for my culture and my family”, confides the young woman, who has an Aboriginal mother and a German father, who is a mechanic.

“She really has the potential to become an international superstar”, suggests Kathy Ward, head of Chic Model Management, who manage Samantha.

“The agency with whom we are associated in New York would like to use her immediately [to work in New York], but our philosophy is that the girls must finish their studies first. After this, Samantha will have everything she needs to succeed”, assures Ward.

This is a feeling shared by the Sydney Morning Herald, which wrote this month that Samantha Harris, “was on the verge of becoming the first top Aboriginal model on the planet”.
A destiny which is uncommon in a community, where alcohol, violence and poverty are often the things which occupy daily life.

Aboriginals have lived in Australia for about 40, 000 years but today they form a minority of about 470, 000 people out of a total population of 20 million.

Most of them live in squalor, makeshift camps in the most isolated areas in the country while the rest of Australia experiences economic development even though the Aboriginals were there first. For most, the idea of a sweet life is only a dream.

Samantha Harris has taken note of the fact that Aboriginal girls hardly ever have the chance to see a positive image of their community in the media

“I do not want to put too much attention on this small contribution, but I am very proud to be considered an example [to young Aboriginal girls]”, says Harris.

Samantha features elsewhere among the potential award-winners at a national ceremony, which each year honours, people from the Aboriginal community for their contribution to sport, arts and performance.

Maybe she will follow in the footsteps of Olympic athlete, Cathy Freeman, who obtained this recognition in 2003. But she dreams rather of becoming the new Elle MacPherson the statuesque Australian model, nicknamed “The Body”.

 

[city girl]

she looked beautiful in the today tonight story..so elegant
did anyone else see it?. you can tell she wants this badly, good luck to her!

 

[fleur137]

i saw it!
thanks for the translation elle!

 

[acester]

I didn't see it

what channel is today tonight on

 

[fleur137]

^ channel 7 6.30pm

 

[Gazillion]

just got back from work...damn it i forgot to tape it. any highlight from the show? care to share?

 

[city girl]

samantha said she's been to tahiti and new york and sydney and melbourne
she looked really pretty. she said maybe i'll be the next supermodel and modelling is like nothing she's ever experienced.
then they featured another model who's been picked up by img..i believe her name is vanessa milde. apparently she's set to be the next big thing..but personally i think she's average but quite tall.
then after the model interviews they went on about the seedy industry, the drugs, and how skinny all the models are
today tonight always love the conteversy ugh.
do all agencys make their models finish school before they can go overseas? maybe it's just chic. i'll remind myself not to see them

 

[wanderland]

Msn had an article about her here

An Aboriginal girl is being groomed as a future supermodel - but first she wants to finish Year 12. Julie-Anne Davies reports.

Samantha Harris is potentially going to be Australia’s first Aboriginal supermodel. At just 16, this fawn-like teenager might also be the way out of poverty for her struggling Tweed Heads family. And then there are the possibilities her struggle-town story offers as an inspiration to other indigenous kids. That’s a lot of potential and a hell of a lot of pressure. There’s more than kilometres between a New York photo shoot and the modest three-bedroom housing commission home in northern NSW that Samantha shares with her three brothers, two cousins and parents.

Discovered in a magazine model search when she was just 13, this is the girl who is routinely being described as the ubiquitous next big thing. Famous French photographer Patrick Demarchelier literally plucked her out of nowhere last year and flew her to New York for a half-day shoot for US fashion bible Glamour magazine. Its premise was the world’s most iconic beauties. And that’s the catch. For an industry that is always trying to re-invent beauty, Samantha Harris has a touch of the exotic. Her indigenous bloodline is her X-factor. And her family’s journey makes her story all the more compelling.
Her mother Myrna and her grandmother, too, were part of the Stolen Generations, removed from their families as young children and placed in children’s homes in NSW. Myrna lived in a tin shed with no electricity for some of her childhood and by 17 was a single mother. “I had a step-dad who couldn’t stand me and a mother who didn’t notice, so I did what lots of Aboriginal girls did back then, I just took off.” The weight of her mother’s past must hang heavily on Samantha’s coat-hanger slim shoulders. And it explains a lot about the expectations being placed on her. “Yes, I do want to be the first Aboriginal model to make it big,” Samantha says. “I spent my childhood wondering why you had to have blonde hair and blue eyes to do well in modelling competitions so I’m proud that a girl with my looks might make it.” Hearing her mother’s history makes her feel lucky, she says. Frankly, it also makes Samantha a better story and her prospects even more promising.
Of course, none of this would amount to much if she weren’t absolutely beautiful. It must be hard, though, being one of her brothers. Samantha’s face dominates the family living room with whole walls plastered with newspaper clippings and magazine photos of their indisputably gorgeous looking sister. Her agent Kathy Ward, from Chic Management, has had the job of nurturing Samantha since she was discovered. It is a carefully plotted course and one, you suspect, that takes some handling. After the Glamour assignment, which Ward describes as unique, “She was booked and flown half way around the world for a half-day shoot. That has never happened to any of our girls before. It is unheard of,” Chic’s New York affiliate agency has been keen to book Samantha for more jobs. But Ward says the answer is no. “She’s not ready, she’s not mature enough yet and she just wouldn’t cope being out there on her own, so it’s not negotiable until she’s finished school. But there’s no doubt, the opportunities for Samantha will be endless, she’s on the radar, she’s out there.”

Locally, Samantha has already done 12 shows at the recent Australian Fashion Week in Sydney and has also modelled for David Jones’ winter and spring fashion launches. She has been chosen by the department store as one of its two youth ambassadors.
And, by the time this story is published, Samantha will be in Fiji on another assignment. But last week she was shyly subjecting herself to this interview, and you could sense it was a stretch. It’s not that she doesn’t like doing media; it’s just that she is not a precocious super-brat. She is shy, naive and still likes to sleep with the light on. No wonder her mother worries every time she drops her at Coolangatta airport for a modelling job down south. Handing your only daughter over to the fashion industry must seem like some risk. But it is a calculated one. Myrna insists it is all Samantha has wanted to do since she was eight years old. Eight? “Absolutely,” says Samantha. “I started doing beauty contests when I was five and by the time I turned eight I’d made my mind up.”
Her mother says she knew her girl was destined for modelling before she was born. Sounds scary, but Myrna doesn’t come off as your average pushy modelling mother. Sure, she entered her daughter in beauty contests when she was only four – and has the photo albums to prove it – but, paradoxically, she also seems genuinely concerned that her child should not grow up too fast. “I have issues with my kids leaving home. I don’t want them to go, I have this feeling of abandonment that I guess might stem from my own past. So you know, it is difficult with Samantha. I want her to be successful, but sending her overseas on an assignment is always really difficult for me.”
Myrna says people assume too much because of her daughter’s exposure. “They think we’re rolling in money but nothing has changed for us yet. I have to remind myself that it takes time, but it is hard when you’ve already spent years running your daughter around trying to get her that big break.” Samantha’s father, Andrew Harris, is unable to work because of ill-health.
“Sam has received a lot of media attention,” explains Ward carefully. “But that doesn’t mean she’s making a lot of money yet. Look, we look after all our girls but if it was any other 16-year-old we probably wouldn’t have invested the same amount of time and money that we have so far with Samantha. Her potential is so great, it will be worth it in the long run.” The nurturing process eats up a lot of what Samantha earns. For instance, Ward flew up to northern NSW to sit in on this interview not so much to act as a minder but because Samantha needs a lot of hand-holding. It is surprising – and comforting – to hear that the agency takes its job as this girl’s protector very seriously indeed. One of their conditions is that Samantha finishes year 12 (she’s in year 11 now) before they start really pushing her face overseas. Ward has seen too many modelling casualties – girls who drop out of school at 15 but find themselves burnt out only a few years later.

“We lost a 14-year-old not so long ago because we insisted she stay at school,” says Ward. “She went to another agency.” Samantha is seen as especially vulnerable partly because of where she comes from but also because she is a very reserved, young 16-year-old. Some girls her age can confidently jump on a plane and fly overseas, but Samantha is not one of them. She is chaperoned everywhere. She needs reminding to make sure her mobile has credit and that she has lunch money. The fashion industry might be at her feet but she is a far from worldly teenager. She doesn’t date, is studious and says there’s no way she’d do a Sports Illustrated-type photo spread. Tellingly, she feels much more comfortable doing modelling jobs than photo-shoots like the one for this story. “When I have the beautiful clothes on, the make-up, my hair done then I’m like someone else. I’m not the little girl from Banora Point.”
Kelvin Harries, one of the Australian fashion industry’s most influential stylists, first spotted Samantha two years ago. His first impression was of rabbit pinned in the spotlight. “She was a young schoolgirl, shy, reserved and totally bewildered by the industry but who was being thrust forward. She wobbled her way down the catwalk on impossibly high heels. Two years on, she glides down the runway.” But, Harries says, no one in the industry wants her exploited.
But back to the expectations. She has been nominated for a Deadly – the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Entertainment and Community Awards – to be announced later this month at the Opera House. She’s up against Cathy Freeman and Deborah Mailman. She gets asked to speak to teenagers at schools, particularly those with a lot of indigenous students. As one 13-year-old blogger posted recently, the three people she would most like to meet, in no particular order, are Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Samantha Harris. What does Samantha make of this? “I don’t know – it’s weird, but I guess I do want to be a role model for Aboriginal girls.”
But speaking publicly is an adult thing, and Samantha is still growing up. She says that doing interviews like this one are the hardest part of her job and who could blame her. When I ask about body image and dieting, she just shakes her head. “I eat healthy but I don’t try and lose weight,” she replies. “What else can I say?” “When I get older I want to be able to say I am a successful model, hopefully Australia’s first indigenous supermodel; but I also want to be able to hold my head up and say I finished year 12.” Her mother agrees. “I say to my kids, if you want to be top shelf, then you’ve got to look on the top shelf. And that means walking through every door that opens for you. I want Samantha to have everything I didn’t – and that’s a lot.”

 

[city girl]

thanks for that
its a bit strangely written though..

 

[acester]

I hope her dad's alright


...city girl you're right, that article was really odd they were making her seem like the most dependant girl ever

 

[Gazillion]

samantha said she's been to tahiti and new york and sydney and melbourne

thank you for the summary, city girl. she's beautiful indeed but i don't get why she's got so many media attention. i just don't see her being the next supermodel.

 

[acester]

^a supermodel has to be able to be flung into the industry and learn by themself, then they make good relationships which help them get to the top, that article portrayed a really contradicting attitude from her

 

[cestmagique]

I could see her being a top model-- it really doesn't take much nowadays, imo (not to say she isn't a good model). The word 'supermodel' is tossed around waaay to frequently; by its old meaning, it was Cindy, etc. which I think requires a lot of sex appeal that isn't likely to come from Samantha, being that she's so reserved. But top model is probable given her buzz.

 

[city girl]

no problem Gazillion

i mean i hope she makes it, cause she wants to be a supermodel
but i don't know if internationally she will be successful
these days the australian media seem to put alot of pressure on girls making it overseas..
like that vanessa milne girl..she's one of plainest looking girls i've ever seen..i don't know how she would make it as a 'supermodel'

 

[Braveheart]

Source:http://new2.isifa.com/

 

[city girl]

she did the lacoste show? wow
i didn't even know she was in ny