The Accidental Teen Modeling Star
The daughter of a local TV personality is making her own name as an international model
One of the world’s next top models just might be 16-year-old Kylee Dashefsky. In only two years of modeling, the senior at Mid-Pacific Institute has been offered modeling opportunities many girls can only dream of.
She just returned home last week from a two-and-a-half month modeling contract with J.I.M. Modeling in Bangkok.
Because Kylee is a minor and this was her first international modeling placement, her mother, Daynin, accompanied her, staying in an apartment building occupied by other models from around the world. While there, Dashefsky went to castings every day, and was hired for four commercials and various printwork, including a clothing ad campaign and look book for CC-OO (see some of her photos at ccdoubleo.com), as well as commercials, print ads and billboards for Miss Shampoo. She also played a ballet instructor in a commercial for Eucerin skin care that will be aired throughout Asia, and is in a hairspray commercial for India.
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According to Doug Lange of Premier Models and Talent, with which Dashefsky is signed locally, there was an opportunity for the teenage beauty to continue modeling in Asia, but she chose to finish her senior year instead. The honor roll student, who enjoys singing and dancing, confirms that she wanted to come home to graduate with her friends.
She also has been busy applying to colleges, mostly in California, and plans to study biology with the possibility of going to medical school. Of course, she’ll also continue modeling. pon returning home, she was immediately hired for several fashion shows at Ala Moana Center’s Fashion’s Night Out last week.
“People used to tell me I should model, but I never used to be into it,” says Dashefsky. “I started because my friend is the daughter of the designer of Mikalance, a fitness wear company in Japan, and they asked me to model for their catalog. After that, they told me about Premier agency and I’ve been with them ever since.
“I definitely want to keep modeling. It’s a great way to make money for school.”
Dashefsky, who turns 17 next month, also used her modeling paychecks to buy a 2012 Nissan Versa.
Her exotic looks come from a mixture of 11 different ethnicities – Filipino, Russian, German, Chinese, Scottish, French, Dutch, Irish, Spanish and American Indian.
Add her statuesque height of 5 feet 10 inches, long silk-like hair, beautiful dark brown eyes and a picture-perfect smile, and you can say she was destined to be a model.
But when the lights and cameras are turned off, Dashefsky describes herself as a typical teenager most likely wearing jeans and a T-shirt and no makeup.
According to Mom, she’s also an overachiever with very good values and a good head on her shoulders.
“Modeling is fun,” says Dashefsky. “I get to travel to a lot of places. In Bangkok, we got to ride an elephant and walk in this jungle, where we got to see waterfalls, and little monkeys would come up about two feet away from us.”
Next on her schedule is a trip to Japan with two other local models for Mikalance’s 25th anniversary event. She also may go back to Asia next summer.
“It’s fun to put on all the clothes, have your hair and makeup done, and go to different places to shoot, like on yachts and mansions,” says Dashefsky. “And I like that I get to meet a lot of people.”
