From lecture halls to the catwalks: Student reveals secrets to juggling law school and modelling
PHOTO: Mako, Mavis Zhang
PUBLISHED ONSeptember 12, 2023 9:25 AMByVenkat Gunasellan Student by day, model by night - no it's not the premise of a Disney sitcom.
It's the life of Mavis Zhang, who is a law student at National University of Singapore and also a fashion model.
On her TikTok account maviszhangg, the 23-year-old shares a taste of her daily life which includes hours-long revision sessions, attending lectures, walking down runways and posing for fashion shoots.
In a nutshell
In one of her day-in-the-life videos, Mavis' day is made up of seven hours of studying, four hours of photoshoot and a two-hour lesson in school.
@maviszhangg save my full day schedule for 7 hours of studying on top of photoshoots and law school and follow for more✌️ i dont do this everyday - moderation is key to not burning out
♬ the man nightcore - dani (taylor’s version)
So how does she juggle both worlds, which are equally demanding?
"The key lies in prioritising commitments and time management," Mavis shares with AsiaOne.
"I found that creating a schedule was so important. You become more disciplined when your schedule becomes your daily routine as habits take [about] a month to form," she mentions. "Listing down tasks to complete and creating checklists are also important to keep track of commitments and dates."
Her day started at 7:30pm sans breakfast as she does intermittent fasting. From 8am to 11am, she spent her time researching and writing a school paper.
The next hour was spent on lunch, which was a salad, and commuting to the location of a fashion shoot for Her World magazine.
The shoot lasted about four hours, and at 4pm she had to rush to school for class. Her lesson ran for two hours, from 4:30pm to 6:30pm, following which she then continued to study on campus till 8pm.
Since her classes typically last only for a few hours, Mavis takes the opportunity to schedule photoshoots and modelling assignments with her agents based on her availability. As she elaborates, "I can have one three-hour class from 9 am to 12 pm, and the rest of my day is free for photoshoots and modelling."
At the same time, she also manages to balance her commitments as a law student and a model by giving up other things in her life such as hobbies, extracurricular activities and socialising with friends.
"I would love to do taekwondo or dance in university as a CCA, but unfortunately I just don't have the time," she tells AsiaOne. "The same goes for going out with friends, I leave the catching up to holidays and it works well for all of my friends because they're busy during the semester as well."
By 8:30pm, she is tucking into her dinner and followed by a shower. Then from 9:30pm to 12am, she pored through her lecture notes. Then the last 40 minutes is spent winding down for the day.
Miraculously, she manages to find time in the day to relax. Doing her skincare routine while watching Netflix or YouTube before she sleeps is one daily ritual that she won't forgo.
"After a long day where I can get high strung and stressed, unwinding by lighting my candle, doing my skincare routine and getting some good laughs is the perfect way to relax before I sleep," she adds.
The challenges faced
As she juggles both worlds, she soon realised that she's a chronic people pleaser by nature, which is something she is working on at the moment. Being a people pleaser, it does bring about its set of challenges.
"I would overcommit as I put pressure on myself to be able to do everything, at the detriment of my physical and emotional health," she reveals. To illustrate her point, Mavis shares a time when she almost fainted on set as a result.
"I had woken up for a shoot at 7am after studying late the previous night. My vision was blacking out with grey dots, I was dizzy and couldn't even stand properly.
"People told me that my face and lips had turned very pale. After the shoot, I had to lie down the whole day to recover, wasting even more precious studying time.
"It was terrifying because my body has never failed me like this and I had never blacked out or had a fainting spell in my life.
"From that incident, I had learnt that my physical health must be prioritised and taking care of my body was paramount."
From then onwards, she always ensured that her well-being was not compromised.
She makes sure that she eats well with "nutrition-rich food". And when she is feeling stressed, she seeks solace in a guided meditation season, mentioning that it helps to calm her mind.
How did it all start
Standing at 171 cm tall when she was just 13 years old, Mavis has been a fan of modelling shows like like America's Next Top Model and the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
"I wanted to be one of the models I saw on the screen, walking runways, modelling amazing clothes and looking effortlessly gorgeous," she shares. "It was definitely a teenage girl's dream that I think every girl must have had at some point in her life — to have it become a reality changed my life indescribably."
As for the academic side of things, Mavis has always been good at linguistics. "Teachers and parents also told me I had an argumentative streak and was not afraid to debate and argue my point across," she reveals.
After attending a few career workshops in junior college and by the way of elimination - she "hated maths and chemistry with a passion" and is a bit of a germaphobe so medicine was out of the question - she decided on law.
Her modelling highlights include walking for a Louis Vuitton fashion show at the ArtScience Musuem.
"It was the first time they held the show in Singapore [and] it was an honour walking for such a prestigious fashion brand and one of the dresses I wore was worn by Nayeon of Twice," she reminisces.
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