Easy, breezy, beautiful

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 16/07/2009 (6106 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

We all know that triumph on reality TV doesn’t necessarily translate into real-world success.

You can win Canadian Idol, for instance, and then vanish into obscurity.

But Meaghan Waller, the gorgeous Winnipegger who beat out more than 5,000 hopefuls to be named Canada’s Next Top Model on Tuesday, believes the reality show has positioned her to forge a career on the world’s runways and magazine pages.

"I think it for sure got me on the right track," the 19-year-old Waller says by phone from Toronto, the morning after the finale of the CTV series. "But to become the professional model that the girls on the show aspire to be, you need to make a name for yourself — you can’t rely on the show to do that all for you."

Part of Waller’s prize is a contract with Elmer Olsen Model Management. Today, she’ll be strutting her stuff with other models for scouts who could affect her destiny.

"(Olsen) brings in scouts from all over the world," she says. "Hopefully I’ll get scouted and come fall, I’ll be overseas or in New York, doing some runways."

Waller also won a $100,000 contract with Procter & Gamble for a Cover Girl cosmetics print ad (already shot during the series) and a spread in Fashion magazine, to be shot in Toronto this Saturday and appear in the October issue.

Waller, a retail clerk at both Swank and American Apparel and a second-year University of Manitoba student, had zero modelling experience when she got up at 4 a.m. one day in January to fly to Toronto and audition for the show (there was no local cattle call). Standing in line for five hours in high heels proved to be worth the ordeal. In the three seasons of Top Model, she’s the only Winnipegger to make the finals.

She spent seven weeks, from late February to early April, sharing a huge Toronto apartment, undergoing challenges and posing for photo shoots while one of the 11 girls was eliminated each week. When filming ended, she came home and had to keep her victory secret for three months.

The blue-eyed teen stands just under five-foot-10. She describes herself as "low-maintenance" and wears little makeup. Her hair was coloured golden blond during the competition. While it was obvious she had a model’s thin frame, "legs for days" and a classically beautiful face, she appeared shy, seemed to lack confidence and was taken to task by the judges for being self-conscious about the braces on her teeth.

The show’s producers asked her to get the braces removed and replaced with Invisaligns, worn at night. Her Winnipeg orthodontist, Babette Cohen, was a bit shocked. "She was a little upset at first," Waller says, "but she understands why I did it and she supported me."

During the Cover Girl shoot, Waller seemed to crumble under criticism. She says the series was accurate in showing that as her low point. "What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. I’m a better person coming out of that. I know how to deal with situations like that now."

The model, whose little-used full surname is De Warrenne-Waller, was born in Thunder Bay and raised, with her younger brother, in Charleswood by parents Richard, a manager with Imperial Oil, and Val, an educational assistant.

She grew up as a lanky tomboy. A few years ago, people started telling her she should model. At Oak Park High School, she was involved in theatre and musicals. She also has a talent for visual art and took fine arts in her first year at U of M.

She was living with her grandmother, near her parents’ place in Charleswood, and taking the prerequisite courses for interior design/architecture at U of M when she had to withdraw for Top Model.

"At first my dad was upset. He’s a businessman, so he’s very ‘Education comes first.’ But they were behind me 100 per cent."

Waller didn’t get copies of the show ahead of time. "I had to wait and watch each week," she says. "For the premiere, we had a huge party at Earls at Polo Park…. I had a lot of Winnipeg supporting me."

For this week’s finale, Waller had to be in Toronto, but her family had "tons of people" over to watch. "I had them on speaker phone for the results. They were all cheering. My boyfriend said my mom and dad were both bawling their eyes out. I’ve never seen my dad cry."

 

alison.mayes@freepress.mb.ca

A model Manitoban

 

Where did Winnipeg’s Meaghan Waller get those runway-worthy genes? She’s Scottish on her mother’s side and a mix of Icelandic, Polish, Ukrainian and some unknowns on her dad’s.

 

It’s de rigueur for models to date rock stars. Waller has that covered: her boyfriend of two years, Nick Wiebe, is the lead singer in the local band Fame.

 

Just a month before Waller auditioned for Canada’s Next Top Model, the Free Press happened to photograph and interview her in Osborne Village for its Streetstyle feature in the Detour section. She looked like a model already (inset photo, left).

 

On a normal day in the Top Model apartment, Waller says, there were at least four cameramen and a whole roomful of production people monitoring the contestants’ every move. The models even had to wear microphones while sleeping. "I don’t really know what privacy is anymore," she says. "(Being filmed) became second nature to us. I think we did end up letting our guard down."

 

Waller’s favourite model is Britain’s Lily Donaldson. In terms of a career to emulate, "Kate Moss has a really great career. Her personal life, however, is a little bit of a train wreck."

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