A young South Australian woman has swapped farm life for the catwalks of New York and is set to become a runway model in Paris this year.
Tully Heinrich is from a beef and cropping farm and when she was in high school a few years ago, her friends dismissed her modelling dreams as being too lofty.
“I first started fantasising about it in probably year nine or 10 and then by year 12 I was just like, ‘Yep, I just want to go to New York, do modelling, I want to do New York Fashion Week,'” she recalls.
“I had all of these huge plans and I remember my friends were all just looking at me like, ‘Yeah, Tully, righto’ and then, yeah, it’s all gone from there.”
Ms Heinrich, 21, has been booked for shows in next month’s New York Fashion Week, and also plans to model in Paris and Milan in the northern autumn.
In the past year she also modelled in New York, Paris and Cairns, in Far North Queensland.
‘Crazy’ transition in lifestyle
Ms Heinrich’s parents own a 3,200-hectare farm about 160 kilometres south-east of Adelaide near Coonalpyn.
Until recently, she had been working at a winery in Cape Jaffa, also in the South East, while living in her grandparents’ old home in Kingston South East.
She says her background is very unusual among the New York modelling scene.
Ms Heinrich has yet to meet another model who grew up on a farm.
“Not only am I Australian, but having a farming background, everyone’s like, ‘Oh,'” she says.
“Everyone that I know is from cities and everything and they’re all like, ‘Oh my God, you have a horse and stuff’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah.’
“I don’t realise how crazy my life is until people start questioning me about it and talking about it but it’s definitely not common.”
Ms Heinrich used to catch a school bus one hour each way to Murray Bridge and then, in year 11 and 12, went to school in Mount Barker, where she rented a house.
Opportunities taken up
After finishing school, Ms Heinrich says she took time to focus on her mental health, getting into meditation and yoga, and following motivational speakers online.
In 2021, she competed in the Miss Universe Australia state finals but did not win and, instead, fell into a job at Cape Jaffa Wines.
It was there that she saw a post about a modelling camp run by Canadian supermodel Coco Rocha in New York.
She applied and Rocha sent her a direct message to invite her to come to the US, which she did early last year.
“It kind of manifested in a way that just all of these things started coming up and I started being able to see the opportunities that were in front of me and not be scared to take a leap or try new things or do all of that,” Ms Heinrich says.
She surprised herself by booking shows last year in New York and Paris, before returning to Australia to relax at the farm and return to her job at the winery.
She flew back to New York earlier this month ahead of Fashion Week.
Girls ‘can do anything’
Ms Heinrich urges girls to not give up on their ambitions, even if the world they want to be a part of seems far from where they currently live.
“If you have a goal or dream I reckon just make the biggest, most outrageous, unbelievable goal that you don’t believe is ever going to happen,” she says.
“And then just take the steps to make it happen because honestly we can do anything.
“I honestly would not ever have envisioned my life to be what it’s like right now five years ago.
“Work on yourself, invest in yourself, meditate, do yoga, do anything that makes you feel good and focus on anything that makes you feel good.
“I feel like that’s the main reason I am where I am — I followed those impulses.
“If I had a feeling like, ‘Oh my goodness, I should do this’, I did it and it led me to amazing things.”
