Lakewood Ranch 16-year-old walks the runway at New York Fashion Week

For a job she only wants to do “on the side,” 16-year-old Central Park resident Mia Womeldorph was given a grand entrance into the field of modeling. 

The teenager walked in two fashion shows during New York Fashion Week, which ran from Sept. 6-11. Womeldorph has already been invited back to walk during Fashion Week in February. The event is semi-annual.  

Dance is Womeldorph’s main focus and it has been since she was 9 years old. While she started dancing in pre-school, she became serious the same year she saw Michael Jackson ONE at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas. 

Womeldorph describes the show as a dance-heavy Cirque du Soleil production and her dream job. 

“Michael Jackson is one of my biggest inspirations,” she said. “I’d never seen a show like that, and watching it, I just knew in my heart that that’s what I needed to do.” 

While it wasn’t a dance gig, the opportunity to walk the runway during Fashion Week came from Womeldorph’s tenacity to make dance her profession. 

“She has sacrificed a lot, including school,” mom Tonya Womeldorph said. “She went to Cardinal Mooney her freshman year and was an All-American, varsity cheerleader, but she decided that she really needed to focus on dance and her career.” 

Last December, Womeldorph was accepted into a mentorship program, Business of Dance with Menina Fortunato, who has three decades of experience in the dance industry. Through that program, she was selected by two designers to walk the runway in Fashion Week.

Courtesy image

The first show was a matinee at The Bureau for Willow Bean Studio. Womeldorph said it was smaller and geared more toward families. 

The second runway she walked was for Kayzie Couture at Runway 7. 

“That one was definitely a little more scary,” Womeldorph said. “There were a lot of people, and it seemed more official, like my mom had to wait outside to get in and past the security guards.” 

She attributed the nerves to being in a new environment. Because of her dance background, being on stage comes naturally. 

Womeldorph said behind the scenes it was like a movie with everyone running around to get the models on the runway in time. She had no idea what she was wearing for Kayzie Couture until 15 minutes before the show. 

When the show started, Tonya Womeldorph sat back and marveled at all the people in the room watching her daughter walk a runway.

“It was very exciting and kind of surreal for me as her mom,” she said. “When she got out there and saw the lights and cameras, she was definitely in her element.” 

Womeldorph also got a little taste of what it’s like to be a celebrity. During a photo shoot in Times Square for Kayzie Couture, a tour bus took notice of her. 

“The tour bus stopped and watched me take pictures,” Womeldorph said. “Obviously, I’m not famous, but it was funny seeing people’s faces like, should I know her?” 

Not now, but they might know her in the future. Womeldorph was signed by a Los Angeles based dance agency in July and will be walking the runway for Kayzie Couture again in February.