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Worlds tallest model sprouts from Turlock
Amazon eve pic1
Turlock native model Amazon Eve is a towering 6 feet, 8 inches tall. - photo by Photo Contributed

Turlock-grown model Amazon Eve has gotten used to looking down at others, literally. But her towering 6 feet, 8 inches of height, making her the tallest model in the world, didn’t make her life very easy with others looking down at her, metaphorically.   

She stood out above everyone else and was titled a loner or geek in high school. Her childhood was filled with teasing and abusive parents.

And through those battles, she fought for her success and has carved out her own career with the one thing she was teased about the most — her height.

“It feels wonderful making a living out of something that I used to hate about myself,” Eve said. “It carries with it a built-in celebrity status. ‘Who is the prettiest model?’ is very subjective. ‘Who is the tallest model?’ that is very objective. Me.”

Eve will officially be in the “Guinness Book of World Records” as the World’s Tallest Model in April, but she already started touring with the book of world records in December 2010.

She might be the tallest model, but her height is not one of a kind and she has become a role model and inspiration to those of an above average height.

“I receive hundreds of e-mails daily, some from men and women of various sizes thanking me for being a role model,” Eve said. “One e-mail in particular came from a man from a very tall family whose sister committed suicide because she felt out of place being very tall. He told me ‘I wish you were around while my sister was still alive.’”

Eve’s height has made her an inspiration to those who are taller than most and that is what inspired her to pursue a career in modeling.

It all started with some extra compliments from close friends that pushed her to believe she was beautiful.

“People have been telling me I should be a model and I didn’t believe them,” Eve said. “I fell into it by accident. Now it’s my career.”

Believing she was beautiful was a big step for Eve after an abusive childhood left her feeling powerless with little self-confidence, she said.

“I was between a rock and a hard place growing up,” Eve said. “I don’t know who was worse, my mother or my father. My mother wasn’t much of a mom. . . My father was extremely physically abusive.”

And she took back that power with the help of one friend.

“It took a really special friend to kick my butt and help me to see I was much more than the personal shame of self-limitations,” she said. “She taught me how to take back my power and use it to improve the life of others. I became Amazon Eve.”

Then her modeling career kicked off in August 2009, when she was on the front cover of a men’s magazine in Australia called Zoo Weekly.

“Making the cover means I wasn’t ugly anymore, and my life took off,” Eve said. “I’ve carved out my own modeling career because main-stream fashions are designed for an impossible and unhealthy size zero.”

Since then she has headlined in over 27 countries and been featured in hundreds of newspapers and magazines.

She hopes to gain a few more fashion brands and continue touring in her modeling career. She has a reality show in development and currently she is promoting the Barefoot Tess brand of shoes in Chicago.

After modeling she hopes to go into acting, which she originally started when she studied theater arts in college. But after being selected as the monster or alien parts she decided to study law at the University of California, Los Angeles and work as a paralegal before her modeling career took off.

To help those who had a troubled childhood like herself, for her birthday she is donating to a child abuse prevention program, a grief recovery program, Hearts of Hope Foundation and the Arnold C. Yoder Foundation.

Despite her soaring height and her uneasy childhood, she has created her own success through the difficult obstacle in her life.

“I’m very grateful for what I have,” Eve said.

To contact Maegan Martens, e-mail mmartens@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2015.