Hello! My name is Amelia Solano and I am a senior in my fourth and final year at Rock Canyon High School. After embodying Coco Chanel for a 5th-grade Wax Museum project, I was obsessed with fashion. I enrolled in the Technology Student Association to compete in a Fashion Design event. Alongside a team, I sewed a dress and found myself on stage modeling our creation to judges and a student audience. Loving the artful presentation of our final garment, I started pursuing modeling. I was cast in that year’s show and have participated in runways ever since, pursuing other modeling jobs including traveling to Iceland with a Colorado-based photography studio to model locally and internationally made garments. 

After having the experience of a lifetime, I realized not all my fashion interests lied in modeling. Taking a turn, I applied and was accepted into Condé Nast College’s Vogue Summer School Fashion Business Program. After studying under industry professionals, I worked alongside an international team to develop and present a mock brand pitch to a Lead Vogue Editor and Sotheby's Institute of Art representative. We constructed a business model for an AI-powered styling app aimed to make the most out of a woman’s closet. At the course’s end, I was selected as Class Ambassador because of my passionate engagement and leadership. Representing my peers at the program’s closing ceremony at One World Trade Center, I shared my experiences and achievements in front of Condé Nast faculty, students, and an online global audience. I hope to study Business Management at University of Colorado's Leeds School of Business, with a plan to study abroad in Paris or Milan to later specialize in Fashion Business. 

My experiences in the fashion community have largely inspired my decision to dive into the world of Victoria's Secret fashion. In preparation for my own modeling jobs, I would binge VS shows in hopes of absorbing a confidence parallel to the VS Angels. While confidence is certainly an admirable attribute, I realized how putting supermodel bodies on a pedestal can significantly harm an individual's self perception. Therefore, these fashion shows hold a vulnerable place in my heart. To me, the runway's 2024 revival was the opportunity I had been waiting for to dive into this controversial world of defining 'sexy' and 'beautiful'.