Interview with Esther Hwang

AC: As a top ranked academic scholar you were admitted to UC Berkeley with a full scholarship and graduated with honors, you are also a beauty queen as the current Miss San Francisco and Miss Asian America, an international fashion model, a successful entrepreneur and host of your own website.

Recently you were an administrative assistant to the equally dynamic Mayor Willie Brown and you now manage Public Affairs for a major San Francisco City and County government division. On top of all this, you really are a genuinely nice person! We know, because we travelled with you to Shanghai and back for a week with Mayor Brown's trade delegation last Fall. So let's start when you were 16. Tell us about your experience "being discovered" by a talent scout!

Esther: One day, being tall, being different, became a good thing. I was somewhat "discovered" like in that fairy tale way most people think never happens. Well I guess in my case, it really did happen. When I was almost 16 years old, I walked into a grocery store with my Mother when a really stylish woman, in a dark pants suit approached me. She asked me how old I was and how tall I was. Next thing I knew, I was meeting her at her offices. She was a talent scout in a prominent Los Angeles Modeling and Talent agency.

I signed my first modeling contract that year. I was appearing in cosmetic commercials and being offered opportunities to model overseas. I was walking on air dreaming about becoming a full time model, looking beautiful every minute of the day, jetting around the world and leading a life of glamour. But, as always, my parents helped keep me grounded in reality. They reminded me about the value of an education, an idea that I always had but became overshadowed by all the excitement. I decided to compromise and pursue local modeling assignments.

I devoted as much energy into school as I did to my modeling career, and as my portfolio grew, my grades remained strong. The hard work paid off, and when I graduated from high school, I had an academic scholarship to U.C. Berkeley and a foundation on which my modeling career could grow. Truly, my side-modeling career took to new heights in college. My side career turned full time as I wrestled with my challenging schedule. I attended school full time, as a double major while working as a model full time. In essence, my modeling career financially supported my college expenses. As my friends worked at local caf? or bookstores to pay for their tuition and dorm rent, I flew to places like Hong Kong and New York for photoshoots, hair shows, and runway shows.

I made the bulk of my money in modeling for swimsuit and lingerie ads, commercials, print, and runway work. Needless to say, my modeling career fueled and supported my college education. When I graduated in 1997, I decided to wait on law school, as I would aggressively seek a more prominent career in not only modeling but acting as well. Working during the days for the City and County of San Francisco, and working on my off-hours and weekends as a model and actress, I have somehow also managed to host and run my own website, www.esther.com.

I have been doing pageants and beauty competitions since I was 16. I finally "retired" from my pageantry career last year, at 23. Just for the record, I'd like to point out that most pageants' maximum cutoff age is 28. So, when people ask me why have I stopped doing pageants, I tell them what I realized at the last pageant I participated in. The novelty and the excitement wore off. I knew when I woke up one day and considered my next pageant a grueling job and something I dreaded I knew it was time to move on. Truly, pageants bring out that competitive nature in you that can drain you and exhaust you. It is like sprinting, not running. You can't keep it up forever. Besides, I told others, and myself I want to focus and concentrate more on my modeling career, acting career, and of course on my website.

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