CATWALK fame could be beckoning for a Kent schoolgirl who beat stiff competition to win a national competition for modelling hopefuls.

The win - a year-long contract with a modelling agency - came as something of a shock for 17-year-old Jessica Roper, of Discovery Drive, Kings Hill, near West Malling. She had never thought of becoming a model.

She said: "I was just shopping in Topshop in Oxford Street when they ran up to me and asked if I had ever considered being a model.

I said no and they took some polaroids of me and then called me back."

Jessica, a student at The Judd School, Tonbridge, made it to the final of the Face of the Future competition held in London earlier this month.

She and another contestant beat 18 other finalists to win a contract with agency Models 1 and a trip for two to New York.

She said: "I think it's really surreal. "I'm so ordinary and it's something that you think happens to almost non-existent people."