In March, Zephyrine L. ’27 found herself sitting on an airplane, flying back to L.A. from Paris Fashion Week for work, typing away at a biology report. On another occasion, she read Sula for English class in a van, surrounded by fellow models. For Zephyrine, none of these moments are out of the ordinary, as she learns to balance a normal teenage life with what she calls her “unglamorous” career as a model.

At 14 years old, Zephyrine was scouted at the Americana Mall, and she has been modeling on and off ever since. She has recently been modeling more frequently and was optioned for a Miu Miu show in Paris Fashion Week. Zephyrine described her time in Paris as “very stressful.” Still, she said, “I like meeting weird fashion people. Models are really nice. So it was fun on the most part, but it was hard to keep up with school and everything.”

Although Zephyrine’s outfit was ultimately cut from the show, the experience was still valuable, as she was able to sign with the French modeling agency, Women Model Management. The agency gave Zephyrine the opportunity to spend six weeks in Paris this summer, working and living in a model apartment. 

Modeling is not quite what most people imagine. “It’s not very glamorous…It’s also just sitting around in really uncomfortable clothes, and it’s really hot,” said Zephyrine. Although she plans to model for as long as she can, she doesn’t see it as a lifelong career. For Zephyrine, modeling is just a way to fund her true passions: filmmaking and writing. 

Before deciding on Westridge for high school, Zephyrine applied for Los Angeles County High School for the Arts (LACHSA) with a short film. Although she didn’t end up at LACHSA, she fell in love with filmmaking after making the short film. “I always wanted to be a writer… and [filmmaking] just kind of was a culmination of all the things I loved about writing,” said Zephyrine.

The short film Zephyrine submitted to LACHSA was centered around a girl completing the bucket list of a friend who had passed away. Since then, she has been inspired by Wes Anderson, David Lynch, and Billy Wilder and made many films, particularly last summer while attending a film program at USC. During the school year, she has less time to create, but she writes whenever she can. “It is definitely hard, though, to keep it all up. I wish I could do more,” she said.

In ninth grade, Zephyrine transferred to Westridge from Waverly, where she had been a student since kindergarten. The transition was especially difficult for Zephyrine due to her struggles with anxiety and because she knew she wouldn’t be coming to Westridge with any friends from Waverly. “There are definitely upsides and downsides. I think it’s just hard,” she said.

Once at Westridge, Zephyrine found a sense of community in theater. Although she doesn’t consider herself a “theater person,” she said, “I just find the people in the theater community so wonderful and kind.”

The theater community encouraged her to audition for the most recent musical, Freaky Friday, despite her initial resistance to acting. Zephyrine earned a role in the musical production, but ended up missing the performances for Paris Fashion Week.

One of Zephyrine’s most meaningful experiences to come out of her work was speaking on a mental health panel for middle schoolers. Zephyrine was asked to speak on the panel after appearing on the show, “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney,” and mentioning her OCD. “It was just really cool to be able to talk to people who also had anxiety, because I would have really liked something like that when I was in middle school,” she said.