Meet Karina Torres: The 29-Year-Old Model Turned Entrepreneur

Miss Ukraine 2012 Karina Torres had dreamt of modelling since childhood. Her keen interest in the field led her to pursue it professionally at a tender age of 13.

After approaching a local agency, she was invited for a casting project in Bangkok, Thailand.

Foreign land and young age; the odds were stacked against her. However, she stayed firm on her decision and soon her parents reluctantly agreed to send her to Thailand to pursue this project.

Gradually, her constant hard work and determination started paying off. After getting crowned as Miss Fashion TV in 2007, she bagged the crown of Miss Ukraine 2012 and represented Ukraine in Miss World Competition the same year. By this time, she had accumulated massive success and fame.

As she was pursuing industrial designing, with a penchant to try something new and exciting, Torres signed up for the Fitness Bikini Contest. However, it turned out to be more gruelling and challenging than she had expected it to be and it ended up taking a toll on her mental well-being.

She trained 2 times a day, 7 days a week for 3 months and was required to consume only boiled meat (without salt, spices or oil), cucumbers and lettuce.

Three days preceding the competition, she was asked to refuse water and the day leading to the event, she had to take diuretics - medical drugs that make you urinate frequently so that the water is drawn out of the body.

Although she did not win that competition, she learned a lot of valuable lessons that are needed to be preached including: not compromising your mental well being for a temporary cause. Soon after the competition had ended, Torres met her now-husband and together they have 2 adorable children.

Torres realised that apart from modelling, her passion lies in working for something that would tether her children to her. She laid the foundation to 2 TV Channels: NIKI Kids and NIKI Juniors.

The NIKI TV channels are Ukraine’s first children’s TV Channels that operate in Full HD and air English content with polyphonic professional Ukrainian dubbing.

Hence, Torres is an exemplary model for the youth to pursue their dreams and passion with full heart without paying heed to the arbitrary number that is your age.

(No Asian Age journalist was involved in creating this content. The group also takes no responsibility for this content.)