A poor teenage girl who grew up sifting through garbage bins and selling cardboard on the dirty streets of Buenos Aires rises to become a top model for the world's biggest modeling agency, Elite.
The lovely but poverty-stricken Daniela Cott, 16, was spotted two years ago by necklace designer Marina Gonzalez sifting bins in the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina...
With the typical model height of 5 feet 10 inches tall, and a pair of emerald green eyes, the designer noticed the youngster's natural beauty through her rags and tangled hair and told her, “You should be a model.”
Alas! It was the magic word that started the glamorous transformation of the young Daniela. Her pictures was sent to an Elite agent who eventually called her in for an interview. She then joined the Argentina4s Elite Model Look competition and win the crown from 1,000 other models. It was the same competition that have launched the careers of Cindy Crawford and Gisele Bundchen.
The competition officially signed her up for Elite. And when she received her first pay cheque from a modeling job in 2006, she treated the nine members of her family to an “eat you can” restaurant buffet.
Who would have thought that the dirty teenage girl who merely lived with her family among 10,000 “cartoneros” in Buenos Aires to sift through bins and households for cardboard and used cans and bottles would become a fashion model? Not even Daniela herself.
“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would one day become a model. I started working as a cartonera when I was 13 because my family had no other choice. I worked every day after school from 6pm to 10pm. Between me and all my family we earned around 50 pounds a week. The work was very tough, and I did it every day for 18 months. We went through people's rubbish looking for cardboard, newspapers or glass bottles to sell to the recycling plant for a few pence. It was a dirty job, and I didn't like it, but I did it to help my family. After working at night, every morning I had to get up for school. One day when I was working I met a woman called Marina, who told me 'You're so beautiful, you should be a model.' She persuaded me to pose for some photographs, and sent them off to an agent. Everything took off from there.”
But modeling did not also come naturally for the Latina beauty. When she was entered into the modeling competition, she could not walk on high heels and had to spend six months mastering the catwalk ramp. Her rough hands also had to undergo lengthy treatment to remove the calluses, cuts, and scars.
Looking back, Daniela proudly shared, “When they entered me into the Elite competition I thought there was no way I could win it. I burst into tears when I won. It was the greatest moment of my life. Now my career is starting to take off. I love posing for photographs and being on the catwalk. I have traveled to Europe, working in Paris, Milan and Madrid, something I never, ever dreamed would be possible.”
Like any triumphant Cinderellas, the lovely Daniela now has her humanitarian aspirations: “Now I want to use my career to highlight the problems of the cartoneros living in Buenos Aires. Working as a cartonera helped me, because it gave me a strong character and a determination, and taught me never to be afraid of anything.”
This time Cinderella is a fashion model.
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