ELLE interview: Hilary Rhoda

Hilary Rhoda is easygoing and friendly, the well-broughtup product of a Catholic girls school. She’s also the proverbial girl-next-door—if your neighbour happens to be five foot 11 and drop-dead gorgeous and earns millions a year as a model. In five short years, Rhoda has transitioned from a sports-obsessed suburban Maryland teen to a globe-trotting top model, as well as a Sports Illustrated swimsuit super-babe and an elegant Estée Lauder spokesmodel.

Now based in New York, Rhoda, 23, seems remarkably unfazed by her life’s amazing trajectory. She can recall with equanimity the brutal rejection of go-sees, where new models are cast for ad campaigns and designers’ runway shows. “It happens to everyone,” she says simply. “One person isn’t going to like your look, but someone else is going to love it. And then you catch on. That’s what happened to me.” Although the model-on-model bitchiness shown on reality-TV modelling shows is commonplace, Rhoda says that that is not her reality. “The other girls were never catty, mean or rude—at least not to me,” she insists. “There was a group of us who started at the same time. We did the shows together every season and kind of grew up together—Coco Rocha, for example. We’ve become friends.”

Not that all her pals are fashion-and beautyindustry titans. Now that her friends from home have graduated from university—with many of them working in New York—Rhoda says that she spends most of her time with people she has known forever. Although she applied for university, and was recruited by some schools to play on their field-hockey teams, Rhoda decided to take a chance and pursue modelling instead. “It was a big risk, but I’m pretty happy with the way things have worked out,” she says.

Besides, adds Rhoda, she enjoyed a vicarious university experience through her older brother. “We’ve been really close since high school,” she explains. “So when he went to the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, I went down there almost every weekend—until he graduated last year. It was so much fun, and I became great friends with his college buddies.” There were no romances, however. “My brother is very protective of me,” she says, laughing. “He wouldn’t let me date any of his friends.”

Learn about Hilary's beauty must-haves and secrets on the next page ...

Check out our '60s-themed fashion spread with Hilary.