ITE win gets her into Top 25

Nur Afiqah Nadhirah Abdul Latif, 19, becomes the first girl to be in The New Paper New Face 2014's Top 25.

Now she has to clear a photo shoot before she is named a finalist in this year's competition. Her entry into the Top 25 is thanks to her being named the female winner of the ITE-Carrie's Next Top Model 2014.

The annual contest was held yesterday at ITE College East.

On being in the Top 25, she admitted: "I'm nervous because I didn't expect to win, so I didn't prepare myself mentally."

The ITE College Central student, who is taking a Higher Nitec in Passenger Services, made it to the ITE finals last year but did not win. But her happy memories of last year's competition spurred her to try again.

She prefers photo shoots to runway modelling, which she finds harder. In the New Face contest, she will have to face both. "There's always more to learn," she said.

Afiqah may be the only girl with a guaranteed entry into the Top 25, but her fellow contestants have a chance too. Runner-up Peh En Ci, 18, and second runner-up Erra Kazimah, 18, move straight into the second round of the auditions.

Contestants in the first round will be from scouting and walk-in auditions. The second round will be closed-door auditions for the Top 25. The Top 25 will be whittled down to 20 for the finals after a photo shoot.

The male winner of the ITE-Carrie's Next Top Model 2014 contest, Jasper Lim, 19, did not even expect to get into the semi-finals. He was asked by his teacher to join the contest.

"I was concentrating more on having this experience with my friends around me, not on winning," said Jasper, who is taking a Higher Nitec in Hospitality Operations. "I'll definitely work towards modelling if I can get more opportunities, maybe in commercials," he said.

This article was published on May 17 in The New Paper.

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