Local Model Lands Big Contract

More abut model from the Friday Albuquerque Journal

Albuquerque teenager Meghan Wiggins is a rising star in the modeling world, recently signing a three-year, multimillion-dollar contract as a face of Guess.

An international campaign featuring her has appeared in Elle, Vogue, Details and GQ. There also are billboards across the United States and Europe.

A story on her meteoric rise appears on the Metro page of the Friday Albuquerque Journal, but here are additional excerpts from interviews with Wiggins and her agent, Olga Tavarez.

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“I feel really fortunate to have this opportunity,” Wiggins said from her Northeast Albuquerque home. “It’s all starting to get real for me.”

She says when she learned of the Guess spot, she was put on hold for a possible shoot.

“That rarely happens and then my agent called me the next day and told me I booked the campaign,” she says. “Since then my confidence has skyrocketed. I’m joining a family that has some of the biggest supermodels in history. I really didn’t think my break was going to be this or come this quickly.”

Wiggins says with her profile on the rise she would like to help change the modeling industry.

“I’m not the skinniest girl and I don’t want to be,” she says. “I want to show young girls that they are beautiful at any size. I also don’t do any sheer nudity … I have self respect for my body and want to teach younger girls to have the same for them.”

As Wiggins adjusts to her career, she’s also adjusting to being away from her home. She often can be found traveling to Europe and doing photo shoots with Guess photographers Ellen Von Unwerth and Yu Tsai. Her agent, Olga Tavarez, says Wiggins has been splitting time between Los Angeles and New York for jobs.

“We eventually want her to settle in one of these places,” Tavarez says. “It’s important for her to remain in the spotlight.”

Wiggins says she will entertain the idea, but will always call the Duke City home.

“Albuquerque is all I’ve ever known and I’ve been homesick,” she says. “But when I do come home, I’m just a normal teenager and my dad gives me chores. It’s a great way to come back down from the chaos that my career brings.”

As for shopping and eating, Wiggins says she enjoys Bailey’s on the Beach in Nob Hill and “everything” in Uptown.

“When I come back home I take in the environment and soak it in. I really enjoy being outdoors.”

Wiggins was working at Keva Juice and with the Phoenix Agency in Albuquerque when she was plucked from obscurity last year for the CW TV show, “Remodeled.” The show followed model expert Paul Fisher as he crisscrossed the nation searching for talent for his company, The Network.

Wiggins says she’s honored to be the “one” model from such a reality TV show who has been signed to a major campaign.

“I’ve watched other TV shows and many of the models don’t make it,” she says. “I feel blessed and fortunate to have such a great start to my career and can’t wait to see what comes next.”

Paul Fisher has represented supermodels Naomi Campbell, Carol Alt, Stephanie Seymour and Claudia Schiffer.

Fisher, along with his team, which includes agent Olga Tavarez, were quick to snatch Wiggins.

“As an agent, it’s so obvious,” Tavarez says of Wiggins. “…. I often get asked what I saw in Meghan and my response is ‘How could you not see it?’ The second I saw her, Paul and I knew we had a find.”

“The Guess campaign is just the first she’s going to do,” she said. “I see her career and I see her working with a lot of different brands. Guess has always had bombshell girls in their campaign and Meghan is just that. She’s the kind of girl who walks in a room and gets everyone’s attention. She’s both a bombshell and the girl next door. It’s rare to have both those qualities.”