Gap-year student makes the grade as new face of Topshop

Little more than two years ago she spent her days off from school looking for shoes in her local Topshop store in Kingston upon Thames. Now Chloe Hayward is the face of the fashion giant's winter collection, and is being tipped to earn "a six-figure sum" in her gap year.

Spotted at the age of 15 by the chief scout at Select Model Management, Hayward was chosen ahead of hundreds of competitors to front a new advertising campaign in which her face will adorn magazine pages and billboards worldwide.

The photoshoot for the campaign, which took place on 12 September, is the most pretigious contract yet for the 18-year-old from New Malden. After achieving three grade As in her English, drama and art A-levels at Tiffin Girls' grammar school this summer, she is now beginning her gap year. Next September she will enrol at Birmingham University to read English and drama. "It's amazing to think that two years ago I was a normal schoolgirl shopping in Topshop and now I'm doing an advertising campaign for them," she said. "This is a huge breakthrough. I know that if I work hard this could be the start of something incredible."

Hayward was spotted by Sarah Leon, head of new faces at Select Model Management, herself a former model who has groomed the likes of Stella Tennant and Daisy Lowe, and discovered the much-hyped Agyness Dean in 2004.

By coincidence, Leon also attended Tiffin Girls' school, and like Hayward was a regular shopper in that particular branch of Topshop. "I walked into the store with my little boy, and remember being struck immediately by this very tall and immaculately beautiful hourglass figure," she said.

Hayward picks up the story: "I was looking really plain. I had a massive coat on and no make-up but I must have stood out, I suppose. I was just milling about with a friend, and then a woman came up to me and explained who she was and what she did. I was shocked and very flattered. She took a photo on her mobile phone. When I saw it I told her it was awful and asked her to take another one. Then she gave me her card.

"I had been on a day off from school because of exams going on there. At first I didn't tell any of my mates, saving it for when I signed up for Select two weeks later."

According to Leon, her work over the next year is likely to be very lucrative. "If all goes well I expect her to earn a six-figure sum through her gap year," she said. "Chloe really is an agent's dream. Not only is she outstandingly beautiful, but beyond that she's not at all generic, bland, or boring to look at. She's attractive to both men and women and is one of the most charming and funny girls I've worked with."

Hayward lives with her father, Stephen, a barrister, mother, Susie, an estate agent, and younger sister, Helen. She says there is no chance of her losing her sense of perspective or forgoing her academic ambitions. "I really enjoy learning, and always thought it was crucial to take school seriously," she said. "I'm fascinated by theatre and by the arts, and to me modelling is a fun and unique insight into the intellectual side of those things.

"I'm too normal to want to be famous. I'm more interested in holding a good conversation with people, and now that I'm 18, and I've been working for a while, I think I'm getting good at it."