Iona - Inspiring Beauty Bling

Journey to the crown what inspired you to pursue pagenantry and how has your journey shaped ...

I've been published in several magazines, calendars, romance novel covers and I compete for American Dream Calendar 15 years ago in Bahamas where over 16 girls, I was picked Miss November, made the calendar. At that time, I was single and knew very little about life. I maintained myself all these years looking after myself, improve, grow, learn, and now that I am a mother of a 10 yr old girl and 12 yr old boy, I test myself to be part of a pageant again since I am very competitive and want to challenge myself.

Balance

Balancing pageantry and being a model are totally different things. While I model I use my creativity along with my talent as a makeup artist ,hair stylist and wardrobe stylist, I test my talents, I create unique concepts with different photographers to create amazing results. On the other side, as a beauty pagent winner representing Canada and International, you need to know how to show grace, good presence, sharp on one's feet to answer questions from the judges, good walk, great posture, know how to pose and smile, be yourself. For balance, I keep both modeling and pageantry as seperate goals and rely on my talents to succeed.

Inspiration and Impact

As I love everything about fashion & beauty, music and nature, that make me move and inspire my creativity, I tend to like the originality, authenticity of old Hollywood classic movie stars. Sophia Loren is my favourite, Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Gina Lollobrigida, Pamela Anderson, she always inspire me since I was a teenager. Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangilista, Naomi Campbell, Helena Christenstein All these classic beauties, top models from 90s even after 2 to 3 decades, they still look good and inspire others because they know how to take care of themselves and stay healthy, whatever their secrets may be. Madonna is one of the strongest powerful role models of all times that after all these years, she knows what she wants, reinvent herself, always bring something new to the table..

Cultural & Personal

I was born in Romania, I live in Canada but I belong to the world and my outlook is global. I am very strong, ambitous, passionate, motivated, loyal, honest, hard working and intelligent. I love being a mother and like helping others to a fault. With my presence, personality, confidence. I always inspire others, male and female. I've make good friends over the years and maintain strong bonds whereas there are some haters who are everywhere these days, missing confidence and full of jealousy, want to take the easy path by taking others down. We have to talk about the negative, just not the positive, without failure at times, one cannot learn and succeed.

Legacy and Advice

I start my modeling journey in Romania, I've been Toronto Sunshine Girl in Canada many times, I started as a bikini model and never knew I could do fashion until I meet my mentor Barry Druxman, who passed away in 2023, who believe in me, transformed me. I became a makeup artist and hair stylist because he saw my talents. We worked on many projects, both in front and behind the camera with other models. I built high confidence in building epic results with many photographers in LA, appearing in over 300 romance novel covers, many calendars, Jesse Leon Photography, Isaac Mays, Philip Ritchie. In New York, Andrew Reed, in Toronto Hong Tonnu, Kim Bao Tran, Justin Wu and Flow Productions. These are my biggest supporters over the years that make my life more beautiful and give me boost of joy all the time to reach the levels that I didn't know i could reach.

I've been coaching my daughter since she was 6 years old, doing photoshoots together, she's still too young to turn into a career but to the new models out there, stay true to yourself, believe in yourself, hang out with right people, do your research, find your style, don't take drugs and take wrong paths that can be addittive.

Future Goals

We all dream big but we have to be realistic because one day you can be on top, next day not so much. It's a very competitive industry and you need to be prepared for anything. Between being a mother and a model, its lots of hard work , dedication. time consuming with responsibilities . For me , I love my kids and my family come first, I may not succeed where I would like and fit to reach to the next level because I have to blend both roles but I'm happy about my career and this road take me from where I start and where I am. I hope that my kids will like to follow my steps but if not the case, I will support them in any way they like to choose in the future.

Fashion Designer: Jessebelle Boutique @jessebelleboutique

Hair Stylist: Iona @capricorniona

Model: IONA @capricorniona