Not Your Average Supermodel

She’s the epitome of modern-day celebrity: a 21-year-old model with a 24-hour selfie habit. Cosmopolitan finds out why the world is following Taylor Hill’s every move

- Francesca Delogu& Lottie Lumsden

You can tell a surprising amount about a person by the followers they have on Instagram. Taylor Hill, the 21-year-old model and Lancôme ambassador, has 8.4 million. Among them are a few familiar names. There’s Paris Hilton for a start, and, oh look… Selena Gomez and… Penélope Cruz. Fellow model-of-the-moment Ashley Graham is there, too, as well as veteran supermodel Cindy Crawford. And hang on a minute, is that Romeo Beckham, Jessica Alba and Craig David?

The fact her legions of fans reads like the guest list to The Met Gala (OK, Craig David notwithstanding) tells you everything you need to know about Taylor Hill. Like Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner and Hailey Baldwin, this is a young woman who transcends the role of simple fashion model.

Scouted back when she was just 14 years old, in the past 12 months Taylor has become the youngest-ever face of Lancôme, walked at every major fashion show and earned herself a place on Forbes’ list of the 20 highest paid models in the world, alongside the likes of Gisele, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne. These days, a social post averages 400,000 likes, and so desperate are the general public for a taste of her life that even her dog Tate has his own burgeoning Instagram account, @tatetheminidoodle (24.9k followers and counting, thank you very much).

Within minutes of meeting her you understand the hype. Of course she’s obscenely pretty in the flesh, with vertiginous cheekbones, perfectly unkempt eyebrows and a smile as wide and well-proportioned as a Parisian boulevard. But she is also drop-dead charming. Not charming in the Tom Cruise BS (before Scientology) school of charm, more The Great Gatsby’s Daisy Buchanan school of charm: a quiet, sweet charm that makes all who meet her want to know more.

She arrives bang on time at the London studio, whispering a velvet soft “hello” as she walks in.