Steph Claire Smith: Mogul In The Making

She’s the ultimate girl next door – oh, but with 1.2 million Insta followers and mega business smarts. WH goes #nofilter with Steph Claire Smith.

- Alex Davies

It’d be easy to underestimate Steph Claire Smith. Yep, her Instagram is full of selfies and wish-we-had-that-tan bikini shots (she’s the face of Bondi Sands, after all). But she’s also smart, self-aware and savvy as hell. The proof: ambassadorships for Adidas and Clinique, and her own venture Keep It Cleaner (KIC) with bestie and business partner Laura Henshaw. What started as a recipe ebook became a wellness website and recently launched as a full-blown lifestyle program with meal plans and workouts. Plus, did we mention there’s a KIC health-food range hitting shelves at Coles this month? And while the 23-year-old model and influencer’s feed is often picture perfect, she doesn’t shy away from real talk, posting about topics like body image. This August, Smith uploaded a video to YouTube that saw her open up about binge eating when she was 20 and modelling in New York. It was raw and honest, asking her followers to realise that “we may show a lot of the perfect stuff online to you, but it’s not a whole reality” – and to seek help if they were going through a similar experience. What’s clear? There’s much more to SCS than meets the eye. We phoned her in London to talk about her whirlwind year, the art of self-acceptance and much more.

Why’d you decide to take Keep It Cleaner further with a lifestyle program?

[Laura Henshaw and I] wanted to expand because I can’t tell you how many messages we get from girls – who even come up to us on the street – about how much they love what we’re about and that they want to see more. I suppose we just want to reach out to as many people as possible, and give them as much information, motivation and inspiration as we possibly can.

You’ve launched a range in Coles. What was the driving force behind that?