From a pet store to Paris: How a Toronto teen is conquering fashion's biggest runways
Lark Huska, 15, was discovered in a pet store when she was 12-years-old
All she wanted was a new puppy. Instead, she got a modelling career.
It was three years ago that a routine trip to the pet store would change Lark Huska's life forever.
Now the 15-year-old is preparing to walk a Paris runway for one the biggest designers in fashion, her third major show in six months.
"Modelling never really crossed my mind," Huska told CBC News.
"Then one day in the pet store this man came up to me and asked to see how big my hands were, and see my feet size ... and it just kind of went from there."
'I couldn't believe how beautiful she was'
Alkan Emin, a Toronto photographer and now a close family friend, stopped her in the store that day.
"I was getting bird food and walked by her and I couldn't believe how beautiful she was," said Emin. "I approached her mother and we had a lovely conversation."
But he says they didn't call him for six months.
"My mom lost the [business] card," laughed Huska. "It was in her wallet the whole time."
So Huska started building her portfolio with jobs around Toronto. In the last six months, she says, her career has started to take off.
She made her runway debut for Christian Dior in Los Angeles last month and then walked as the closing model for Valentino in New York soon after.
Top ten model to watch
"It's so crazy, it felt so surreal that I was chosen to do that and that someone put the trust in me with my age and only my second show," she said.
Her first two shows were for Resort 2018, a "world tour of fashion shows," which got her a nod from Vogue Magazine as one of the top ten young models to watch.
Her manager, Chantele Nadeau, who also manages the career of another Toronto teen Emm Arruda, says it's not just Huska's looks that have garnered her such quick success.
"She is very smart, hard working and very mature for her age, and she has fantastic support from her family," said Nadeau.
"[A modelling career] is not a one person journey, there's a lot of people involved and if you're surrounded by the right people you have a better chance of being succesful."
'How to deal with having a potential supermodel'
The rock in her career has been her mother, Alexandra MacQueen. She has travelled the world with her daughter with each new opportunity.
But MacQueen admits it hasn't always been an easy transition.
"I had no experience with the world, no mom to call for tips," she said. "There's no website on 'how to deal with having a potential super model.'"
The transition for Huska hasn't always been easy either.
Before that day in the pet shop, Huska says she was going to the pool, hanging out with friends and all the "stuff you do when you're 12."
But now, she's homeschooled and says she has slowly been drifting away from her childhood friends.
"I'm still just a 15-year-old girl from Toronto ... but its hard to go to the middle of LA and just walk Christian Dior then go to chemistry class, its a hard in-between."
'She's going to be a star'
And despite that, Huska says she'd like to make modelling a full-time career, but acknowledges that may not be realistic.
Her team thinks she will have a long career ahead of her.
"I'm super excited to see what she's going to do," said Nadeau. "This girl is going to be amazing."
Emin believes it, too.
"She's going to be a star."