Tess McMillan isn’t like most other models, even if her story sounds similar.
Scouted on Instagram by photographer Heather Hazzan and currently signed with Muse,18-year-old Tess McMillan is rising swiftly in the fashion world. The Texas native has moved to New York’s East Village and she’s set her sights on acting. She’s got a good chance of making it to Hollywood. With an ethereal beauty—“I get a lot that I look like someone who would’ve been born during the renaissance,” she demurs—the flame-haired model has an instant spark. For now, she’s keeping it real on her Instagram page, where she’s racked up nearly 12,000 followers with her filter-free selfies and off-the-cuff posts.
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She tells Vogue that her goals are “to keep creating art that inspires others, and working alongside people that inspire me! I love creating beautiful pieces that I’m proud of, and I want to continue to do that long into the future. I’m very open to where the industry takes me.” So far that’s seen McMillan in the pages of British Vogue and featured in #MovingLove, alongside the likes of Cindy Crawford and Bella Hadid. “It felt like a crazy childhood dream coming true.”
“I also recently shot a commercial and made a short film with a friend of mine, and I really loved the connection and intensity of playing a character on film, so I’m very excited to see where that goes for me,” she adds, hinting that more acting gigs could be next. “I look up a lot to models who have been real trailblazers in the industry. People like Grace Jones, who was super unapologetically her own person. I also love Brigitte Bardot’s effortless elegance and draw a lot of inspiration from that,” she continues. McMillan is trailblazing in her own right—casting aside labels like straight size or plus size for a career that puts her beauty and personality front and center. Consider her the future of modeling, in more ways than one.
