The first time I met Steph Claire Smith was in a yoga class for a beauty brand launch about 18 months ago, where she gracefully moved from one position to the other while I flopped awkwardly around the mat trying to hide my confusion about what “downward dogs”, “sleeping babies”, and “tree poses” were [yep, clearly not a yogi]. I then went on to make things worse by confusing her with another influencer… but that’s another story…

I’ve since had slightly less bumbling encounters with Steph at events where I try to avoid her line of questioning on “haven’t we met before?” It was at one such event, being held by leading health and beauty retailer Priceline Pharmacy, that I got the chance to hear from Steph on how her path into Instagram fame first began. Here, she talks getting into modelling, top health advice, and early brand campaigns.

Did you always dream of getting into modelling or did you just fall into it?
I did modelling for a couple of years when I was really young in primary school, just because I was obsessed with being in front of the camera – my mum has plenty of photos of me when I was little, I just loved it! And then I stopped during high school and just focused on school, I also had braces at the time.

But basically I was finishing up high school and it was the only thing that I knew I 100 per cent wanted to try. I had interests in other things at the time, but I knew I wanted to give it a go. So I took a gap year and started doing test shoots. I was really lucky to get signed with my dream agency straight away and picked up some really regular clients pretty quickly. It was always a dream of mine and I’m so excited it’s been going well and that I’m still doing it.

You have an incredibly insane body. What are your top health tips?
It’s all about balance. I think another big tip is to really find happiness. For me, if I’ve ever been too strict – if it’s with exercise or eating right, I’m not entirely happy. I think the most important thing is to be happy and finding that balance usually gets you there.

We have to admit, some of the bikini shots you’ve done with Bondi Sands have us wanting to hit the gym BIG TIME. Loving the campaigns you’ve done with that brand btw! What’s it like working with them?
I’ve been with the Bondi Sands family for four years now, they were one of my first clients. It’s been amazing watching the company grow into what they are today. But basically when I got the first job, I was excited because it was a product that I had used before. Being at the age of 18 and in modelling, I’m pretty tanned naturally during summer, but sometimes during winter clients want you to still look the same – so I began using fake tan and Bondi Sands was the new kid on the block at the time. It was almost exactly the same as my natural colour, so I was obviously very excited when they decided to sign me as the face of the brand.

All images: @stephclairesmith. For more of Steph’s health advice, visit Keep It Cleaner.

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