Kayla Kruse keeps her balance on and off the runway

By Ginny Privitar

MILFORD — Kayla Kruse's modeling career has come a long way in a short time, when she joined other leggy beauties on the runway recently at Fashion Week in New York City.
The 19-year-old model and Delaware Valley graduate admitted to being frightened by her experience. Fashion Week is a high stakes event: designers introduce their latest collections, and the media and buyers discover the latest trends. New York, London, Milan, and Paris have the most prominent fashion weeks in the world.
"The designers get a little crazy, and all the press is there,” said the five-foot-ten beauty. “I do get scared walking down the runway. I was scared of falling.”
On those six-inch heels she was wearing, it’s a real possibility.

It started with a pageant win

Kayla's first experience showing off clothes came at around age 6, when she and her cousin entered a pageant. Kayla noticed that her cousin and all the other girls wore fancy pageant dresses, while she wore her Easter dress. To her surprise, she won.
“After that I loved being in front of the camera and used to take pictures all the time," she said.
She got her first big modeling job all by herself. In 2010, she emailed Seventeen Magazine to ask if they needed girls. The magazine invited her to Prospect Park in Brooklyn for a photo shoot, and she appeared in an August 2010 issue.
“Meeting all the nice people" is her favorite part of the work. "Everybody is so nice, the photographers have been so nice," she said.
Kayla feared the designers might be "mean, nasty and crude, but they weren’t.” She also likes meeting other models from all over the world.
“Playing dress up" is fun, she said. "I love fashion, and this made me learn so much about fashion. Many of the designers give me the clothes after I model."
Kayla had a few modeling jobs while in high school. She’s worked for Harper’s Bazaar and has been featured on Style.com, along with some modeling on a smaller scale.
One month ago, she signed with Boss Modles New York, which led to her Fashion Week gig. She found the agency through models.com, and sent in photos.
“I always wanted to model but was scared to go to the city and get denied," she said. "Luckily I went to two different agencies, and they both wanted to sign me. My agent is so nice and easy to talk to."

The girl next door

Kayla lives in Milford and works at a TJ Maxx store in New Jersey. The job helps pay for her commute to modeling gigs in the city.
Her burgeoning celebrity is catching up with her. Some co-workers have already asked for her autograph.
She puts her height to uses other than modeling.
“I love basketball," she said. "I used to play basketball" — and she still does, with family and friends. "But now I’m more focused on modeling."
The most difficult part has been maintaining her weight.
“I eat junk food," she said. "I love cheeseburgers, fries. Now I try to eat healthier food like vegetables and chicken.”
It's also tough dealing with not being chosen. She’s glad she didn’t have to go to casting calls while still in high school.
“There are so many beautiful, skinny girls at casting calls," she said. "You’re turned down a lot."
It's not enough to be pretty. You must have "the look" designers are looking for.
But she believes dealing with being turned down has made her stronger as a person.
“I take it as a learning experience," she said. If she'd encountered rejection as a high school student, she said, "I’d think, ‘My God, I’m so ugly.’ Now I know I’ll get another opportunity. If I went to the city while in high school it would be so much harder to deal with.”
Kayla wants to live in the city someday to be closer to her modeling work. But she’s heard some “weird stories” about the goings-on in some apartments shared by models. Her family is her greatest support, she said, and hopes eventually to share an apartment in the city with her sister.
If she wasn’t a model, what would she be?
“An FBI agent, actually,” she said. “I’m taking online college courses now. Last year I went full time.”
She wants to major in criminal justice, perhaps eventually transferring to John Jay College.
But you don’t need to be a detective to see that Kayla has brains as well as beauty, and a bright future beckoning.