Like many things she does, Vanessa Tyagi (12) started modeling on a whim.

“It was just one of those impulsive things that I do, so I was like might as well do it — I’ve always wanted to,” she said. “I’m a very 100% or 0% kind of person. I don’t really do anything just to do it. I’ll either do it with everything I have, or I just won’t do it at all. A lot of people have a very healthy middle ground and when it comes to everything in life, and I just don’t. It’s either I’m 100% in or I’m not interested at all, so there’s no real sense of moderation.”

Through modeling, Vanessa has learned to overcome her original fear of the spotlight.

“When I was in Aladdin in 8th grade, I was so afraid of being on that stage and in front of a lot of people, but the thing about modeling is it’s a very intimate setting,” she said. “There’s not a lot of people there, maybe on set there will be like five people if it’s a test shoot. If it’s a bigger production, obviously the cameras are on you and it’s kind of you watch what you’re doing, but I never feel like stage fright. If anything, I feel more confident knowing that everyone’s watching and knowing that I can do a good job. I know it sounds kind of dumb, like you’re just standing there, but it’s actually really hard to stand in one position for like four hours, and it gets exhausting. So, no, I don’t really get stage fright. I actually get kind of excited and you feed of the energy of everybody around you on set.”

Modeling brought a larger degree of structure to Vanessa’s life, guiding everything from her diet to her morning routine.

“Before I started modeling, I didn’t really take care of my body,” she said. “I didn’t have any aim or anything to work towards or look forward to. While I don’t work out because I model, it introduced me to something that I should have been doing all along, which is taking care of my body. I’m much more attuned to what’s happening internally. I do a lot of emotion checks on how I’m feeling, or how I ate or how much I’m working out and how that’s affecting me. That’s something I don’t think I would have done if I didn’t have something to do it for initially. But now it’s turned into something that I just do because I have to do it to function, and I find that that’s how I’m my best self.”

Vanessa finds her “best self” through hot yoga, as evinced by the bright orange CorePower sticker on her black Hydro Flask. She even plans to attend classes to become a yoga teacher.

“I started doing yoga at CorePower, and at first, I really didn’t like it because I’ve never been really coordinated,” she said. “I’m really bad at dancing; flexibility, I have none. I’m kind of just this stiff pole. I walked into this yoga studio, and I was so self-conscious of myself. I went alone, and I was putting myself in this very uncomfortable situation, but I think when I started to enjoy it, that’s when I felt successful. I found happiness in it. And I’m not that bad anymore. I can actually move, and I don’t look like I’m in pain every time I’m doing a position.”

Her mentality from yoga has translated to her attitude towards food.

“I like to wake up kind of early and I started this thing — it actually happened when I lost a bet to my dad — but I’ve started waking up and cooking breakfast for my parents and myself, like cooking omelets and some oatmeal and just some simple stuff, but it makes them really happy,” she said.

In general, Vanessa devotes herself to her family — Larissa, her younger sister, and Aarin, her younger brother. She tries particularly hard to set a good example for Aarin, who is twelve years her junior.

“That age gap in and of itself has just been so rewarding because to watch a child grow and develop makes you think about your own growth and development as a person,” she said. “And it also makes you more responsible. Having him around definitely holds me to higher standards because I watch what I do because I know he’s very quick to follow anything he sees. I think just being held accountable by somebody other than your parents, like it’s a very different type of pressure. It’s like you don’t want to disappoint him. It’s a very different type of disappointment than disappointing your dad or your mom. You really want to be the best person for them, so they’re more confident in themselves.”

Out of all of her memories with Aarin, one in particular stands out: when he couldn’t pronounce her name.

“For the longest time, he would call me ‘Wan-sa,’ like it would just be a jumble of syllables and he genuinely thought that was my name,” Vanessa said. “He didn’t understand he was saying it wrong. To him, it sounded like ‘Vanessa.’ One day, I just looked at him and said, ‘Aarin, my name’s Vanessa.’ Ever since then he’s called me ‘Vanessa,’ and he’s very conscious about it. I’ll be like, ‘Aarin, remember when you used to call me Wansa,’ and he’s like, ‘No.’ I think that was really cool to teach him something so simple but it just meant a lot to me.”

Vanessa’s friend Amitej Mehta (12) also spoke about her compassionate personality.

“She was driving on the freeway one day, and there was a little rabbit — it was in the middle of the lane, so cars were driving over the rabbit,” her friend Amitej Mehta (12) said. “But she stopped, she picked up the rabbit and put it in her car. She called all the vets in the area to figure out which one would take the rabbit, and finally she was able to do it.”

Instead of waiting for a singular epiphany or stroke of luck to bring her success, Vanessa invests her time in building strong daily habits.

“I hold myself to very high standards, and that kind of keeps me going,” she said. “I just think about the kind of person I want to be. I talk to myself a lot, like I talk a lot in general, but it doesn’t stop there. I literally talk to myself and I give myself pep talks, like all the time. It keeps me motivated, and it keeps me thinking about something, and it keeps me feeling like I’m accomplishing things.”