“It’s definitely made me more ambitious and adventurous,” senior Maya Disher said.

Maya is just an average teen on the outside, but behind the scenes she has a lot more going on. The former pageant queen turned model is thriving in the industry. She is represented by multiple different agencies, including Launch Models and Talent and Caryn Models, which are based out of Minnesota. Maya also attends castings and shoots regularly. She is often found traveling out of state for this work, but still manages to be a successful student at home.

Although the modeling world often comes with a very negative connotation, overall the experience has been extremely positive for her. Of course like anything in life, there have been ups and downs, but she has persevered and kept going.

One challenge she has faced is finding trustworthy and reliable agencies to work with that will support her in the ways she desires.

“I’m definitely figuring out what agencies are good and what ones I want to work with. There are problems sometimes with having agencies that don’t do anything for you and then agencies that want you to change in order to model. I didn’t want to be a part of the bad part of the industry, so finding what worked and what didn’t was definitely a challenge,” Disher said.

She has also created many connections and strong relationships through the process. Maya has formed a community of friends, colleagues and agents that supports her and that she can lean on for extra guidance. This is crucial in an industry where knowing the right people can provide great benefits in many different ways.

Her willingness to speak to new people has served her well and has helped her to make some good friends. “She’s really good at that networking and that relationship building and she’s also good at staying in touch for down the road and future scenarios,” Maya’s mother Camille Disher said.

It has also taught her to work tirelessly for what she wants. She works hard to open up opportunities for herself, and to pursue her passion. Whether it be finding shoots, speaking with agents and representatives, or just giving her all to a job, Maya uses her grit and networking skills to continue to improve.

She is praised for her ambition and determination. “She’s very ambitious and by tackling these kinds of things at this stage in life is only setting her up for success” and “she’s developing some great skills now that will serve her well later,” Camille said.

She plans to continue to model in the future for as long as possible. She truly enjoys it and her biggest goal is to get to a point in life where she can model as a full time job. Her aspirations are easily attainable, especially with her drive to make it all a reality.

Maya explained she would love to move out to New York City with friends and eventually make a name for herself in the industry. She also plans to go to college and continue her education in the coming years.