Teen Hollywood by Teen newspaper

Local teen headed to Hollywood

Destiny Woll appears as a bashful 13-year-old, until her face surrenders to a full-tooth grin cornered by prominent dimples.

When she smiles, you smile.

The 5-foot-9-inch teenager, who insists she is not finished growing, loves sports. She’s on her basketball team at Roseburg Junior Academy, and she also golfs and snowboards.

While she may don sweatbands and goggles at times, she was anything but tomboyish on a recent morning. The teen sauntered into the room in knee-high black boots, her hair styled to loosely fall on her shoulders and her mascara’d eyelashes highlighting the hazel hues in her eyes.

Destiny, the daughter of Diane and the late Dennis Woll of Roseburg, will soon head to Los Angeles to participate in the International Modeling and Talent Association’s week of modeling, acting, singing and dancing competitions. Over 100 fashion and talent agents, directors, network representatives, personal managers and music producers judge the IMTA competitions, searching for new talent.

Destiny will strut down a catwalk clad in beach duds in less than three weeks— in front of thousands of people.

The scenario might be enough to scare anyone else into staying home, however, Destiny has a passion for high fashion and makeup and seemed only slightly concerned when she said, “It’s going to be nerve racking to be in a bathing suit in front of all those people.”

But her face relaxed at the mention of “wardrobe.”

Talking about Dolce and Gabbana and Armani had Destiny flashing that smile again as she started to open up about her love for modeling, which began when her grandmother, Anne Engle, thought it would be a good practice for self-confidence and to make her granddaughter feel good about herself. This coincides with friends and family who wouldn’t stop pestering Woll to pursue modeling.

“I love being behind the camera and having fun with it,” she said. “It’s exciting.”

Aside from a few practice runway sessions at International Modeling Development in Medford, where Woll is training and taking modeling classes, she hasn’t yet bared her legs for a crowd of the IMTA caliber.

She was selected through an audition by IMD, to attend the Hollywood event. Teresa Pollman, president of the Medford company, is readying herself for her 34th IMTA convention.

“IMTA is like the Olympics of modeling and acting,” she said. “There’s more agents, managers and scouts attending this convention than any other in the world.”

Pollman said the IMD panel liked Destiny’s height right off the bat, and of course, her “great smile.” But looks aren’t everything, she said, and the teen’s personality added her to the list of 23 models and actors selected from 250 candidates in the Northwest.

“She’s a really sweet girl,” said Pollman. “She definitely has the whole package.”

Destiny and her grandmother will leave for L.A. Jan. 6 and return the 13th. The week will consist of a rigorous schedule, with models waking at 5 a.m. every day and keeping a steady pace through runway shows, television commercial shoots and award ceremonies.

According to Pollman, at the end of the week, there may be agents interested in signing kids from IMD.

“We usually walk away with model of the year and actor of the year,” she said.

The massive talent convention can be credited for the discovery of Katie Holmes, Ashton Kutcher and Eva Longoria, among other famous names.

Destiny, who is inspired by Tyra Banks and the Victoria’s Secret models said all her friends are cheering her on, but she is not losing sleep wondering where the Hollywood appearance will take her.

“If I got something out of it, I would definitely do it.” she said. “But if not, I want to be an anesthesiologist.”