She's All That

They’re bold, beautiful, and have articulateviews on the world they’re taking over –meet the Grazia Cover Girl Hunt champions:Madhulika Sharma, Namrata Sheth, TJ Bhanu& Irene Augustin.

- Dhvani Solani

Don’t get us wrong: we love seeing familiar names on the runway. But there is something exciting about unearthing raw talent, about scouting for those faces that will one day in the near future break the Internet. And there is no better way to do this than through the Grazia Cover Girl Hunt. The champs this year go beyond just being pretty faces, though pretty they are – they’re vocal supporters of education; they’re taking time out to maintain blogs; they’re reading Karl Marx while awaiting their shot. In a way, we wanted our shoot with them to resemble their personas – pretty but with surprising pops of steeliness, transparency and grit. There’s a new wave of models taking over, ladies and gentlemen, and we suggest you memorise their names, stat.

Meet: MADHULIKA SHARMA, winner

Who’s that girl: Sharma’s doorstep is where model stereotypes come to die. This 19-year-old will talk to you about hegemony, Hegel, and soft power as easily as she connects with the camera. She hails from Assam, has lived in Guwahati for the majority of her life, and is now studying Political Science and Economics in New Delhi. You might have spotted her in campaigns for Fab India and Good Earth; look out for her in one for Raw Mango.

That’s what she said: “You meet so many self-empowered women in north-east India that you naturally grow up self-actualised. Although I was a gangly grapevine while growing up and belonged to a society that idolised fair-skinned girls, I concealed my insecurities well. I took up modelling because I needed to venture out of my comfort zone. I find convention too boring, although until a year ago, I wanted to be a civil servant.”