WATCH ABOVE: A 10-year-old Montrealer’s resemblance to a famous Russian model has brought her the possibility of a new career. Rachel Lau has details.
MONTREAL – Elizabeth Hiley wants to be the next top model and at just 10 years old, she’s already on her way to living her dream.
“Yesterday, when I walked into class, everyone was like, ‘You’re famous!'” she told Global News.
“I’m like ‘Oh my god, how do they know?'”
READ MORE: ‘Most beautiful girl in the world’ doppleganger, mom explain plans for modelling career
It’s all thanks to a photo. Not of Elizabeth, but of 9-year-old Kristina Pimenova, a Russian model, and Elizabeth’s striking blonde-haired. blue-eyed doppelgänger.
Can you spot the difference?
Pimenova has been recently touted as the most beautiful girl in the world.
“I thought it was me and I was like, ‘I don’t remember that photo,'” said Elizabeth.
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“My mum was like, ‘That’s not you, that’s Kristina.'”
“I was like ‘Who’s Kristina?'”
Her mother, Anne-Marie Ashcroft, told Global News that the similarity between the two girls is what inspired her to allow Elizabeth to model.
“‘Who am I to stand between Elizabeth, my daughter, and her dreams of modelling?'” she asked.
“When somebody out there who looks so much like her is doing it.”
The mother has high hopes for her daughter.
“As a mother, my job is to try and find a balance.”
“I don’t know if I’ll find a perfect balance, but I’ll try, certainly,” she said.
“A balance between her being in the public eye and being safe.”
But, there are sacrifices.
“I’m kind of worried because I’m missing a lot of homework, and I’m missing a lot of work that I’m supposed to be catching up on,” said Elizabeth.
Ashcroft also admitted there’s a nagging voice at the back of her mind.
“You do have internet trolls, you do have jealous people, you have spiteful people,” she said.
This is a sentiment echoed by Sybille Sasse Modelling Agency.
The agency sometimes even have to protect children against their own parents.
“Sometimes we see a parent coming, they want it so bad, and you can tell the child doesn’t want it,” said owner Sybille Sasse.
“They want nothing to do with it. Then we have to say, ‘Sorry, we won’t be working with you.'”
“The child has to want to model or it’s a lost cause.”
This is something Sasse reiterated when she first met Elizabeth.
“I asked her about her hip-hop and she danced right away, said Sasse.
“She’s not shy, so I would think she has what it takes.”
Elizabeth has British-Canadian citizenship and has already signed with an agency in Montreal, as well as one in London, England.
But, she admits she’s not quite ready to take her budding career to the international stage.
“I would like to stay in Montreal,” she said.
“This is my home.”
Not to mention the fact she still has to get through elementary school.
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