Georgia Fowler is slowly steamrolling the modelling industry one goofy move at a time
If Georgia Fowler’s cheek bones hadn’t gotten in the way, the scientific world would likely have earned itself an alumni by now.
And yet here the 25-year-old cover star finds herself in a slightly parallel universe as she sits in her New York apartment puzzling over my first question: what three words best describe you? ‘Goofy,’ that’s the first thing you need to know about her, but she doesn’t pause to think about that one as the sentence into which it trips plays out true to her honesty. What would her friends say? Goofy. No doubt. Fowler’s mom though? Kindness comes to mind, but that’s quickly brushed aside as such a mom thing to say by her daughter. Which makes me think she might be underselling her humility, but of course she would. As for the other two words, we’ll get to them later.
The goofiness though, that’s just Fowler’s roundabout way of saying she’s a down to earth woman. ‘I mean I just have a bit of fun really. We’ve had lots of giggles lately with my mom and my aunty in town, we’re all very silly.’ And here’s the only hitch I have with what that modesty is hiding; while she might be down to earth, her career so far has been anything but. Having first modelled at age 12, the New Zealander moved to New York soon after her 16th birthday, helped at first by her mom and then on her own, as her maturity and strength fast tracked as swiftly as her career. ‘I certainly grew up very fast. It was difficult at the beginning because I didn’t have many friends here, but I wasn’t living at home either. Not feeling like either place is where you need to be.’ So she did what she was there to do and she did a lot of it. Which brings us to the second thing you need to know about her: she’s probably more hard- working than you and loves that. Asked how the rest of her year might play out, the main thing she wants is to keep busy and keep working. ‘I love to work, so the more of that the better. You kind of are your work, aren’t you? Every time you’re out, you’re portraying your image.’ The way she says it underlies a contemplative self-awareness that few people in her industry carry as well.
Up until a point, Fowler was a psychology undergrad, until her work schedule wrung out every spare minute of her waking day. ‘The only time I’d be able to do it was on a plane, and on a plane was when I was actually supposed to sleep. It’s on the back burner for now, but something I want to get back to.’ Had she not been getting on so many flights and doing so much work, her fondness for maths and physics would in all likelihood have produced an engineer. Not possible with her schedule, she redirected to psych. ‘Psychology was really interesting to take because it’s so relevant in everyday life and everyone we’re working with in this industry. I think everyone is a bit mad in every industry and it makes you think differently about people’s behaviour.’
While her demand might be consuming her right now, there’s an overarching computation that broaches her mathematical mind in the long game, one that goes far beyond simply lending her name to brand collaborations. Playing true to her mother’s words, Fowler’s kindness is what cuts through in her intent, surpassing her loyalty and hard-working nature. ‘I’d love to do something with the ocean, but also something more social that helps younger models know what to do when they get into the industry: health-wise and with nutrition and just knowing what to do in a foreign place.
Everyone treats you like an adult and it would have been nice to have had some sort of help. Or I could use psychology as a foundation to work towards trying to help people with mental illness.’ For now though, amongst the asteroid shower of Georgia Fowler’s universe, a summer holiday (like the one she got here), a proper one, would actually be quite nice. ‘Just one summer vacation for a week, that would be nice.’
