If you asked the likes of Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell what their back up plan was, you can bet becoming an actuary wasn’t on the list.
But that’s the unusual career path young Shivani Member, of Hatton Road, Bedfont, has mapped out for herself. And she’s going about it pretty well.
The 12-year-old has just been crowned Junior Miss Middlesex Galaxy and is preparing to compete in March for the UK title.
She will then swap the world of fashion for academia this summer, when she sits her maths A-level five years early - having already notched an A* in the subject at GCSE.
Shivani has her heart set on becoming a model but plans to study maths at university so if that doesn’t work out she can become an actuary.
“When I was little I used to see models in adverts and think ‘why can’t I do that?’” she said.
“I still want to be a model but I want to do a maths degree so I have other options available, like becoming an actuary.”
Shivani won the junior beauty pageant after impressing judges with her modelling portfolio and her broad CV, which includes acting, dancing and cricket.
She recently played the lead role in a drama competition at Langley Grammar School, where she studies.
She has also performed dance routines at a number of weddings and is an all-rounder for her school cricket team.
Although they don’t have a reputation for being brainy, Shivani would not be the first model to get a degree.
Lily Cole has a first-class degree in the history of art from Cambridge University, while Christy Turlington graduated from New York University with a degree in philosophy and literature.
