Posted In Team

Shona Hampel, Founder

15th October 2015

Why did you start The Model Advocate?

I realised I spent all my spare time searching for the very best advice available, and the people who could give it to me – whether in nutrition, fitness, parenting, work-life balance. Every time I came across something useful, a nugget of nutritional advice that no one seemed to know, a healthy but delicious and easy family recipe, the best arm toning exercises, how to teach young children to read, you name it, I wanted to share it with my sister, my girlfriends, my Instagram or Twitter followers. It started like that. Over time, I hope it will become a trusted resource for well-researched independent lifestyle advice for girls and women.

I am the world expert in…

Umm.. Sleep deprivation?  Modelling across fashion weeks while studying, law school, New York Bar exams, magic circle law firms, investment banks, three young children, an overactive mind, workaholism. That’s not a word, is it? I’m an expert in making up words…

I love…

Family and friends, good conversation, experimental cooking/making up healthy recipes, being in the ocean, books, exploring new cities and cultures, beautiful things.  Anything that makes me sweat – especially running in remote places.  

I hate…

Early mornings, hunger, negative people, stereotyping, inequality, rain, slugs, injustice, illness, traffic, unkindness.

Guilty pleasure

Keeping my kids up too late at weekends and letting them sleep in my bed.

Weird fact you’d never guess about me

I was an academic freak in childhood and adolescence! I could read and write by age 3 (mainly self taught according to my mother, she was busy doing a PhD in nutrition at the time). Throughout schooling, I got the top grade in everything, straight As, straight firsts, distinctions, scholarships, certificate for best A level paper in the country, seven law school best paper prizes, the Sweet & Maxwell prize for highest honours in the LLB, an academic fellowship to Harvard Law School. I don’t think I’m actually very clever, this academic record attests to my work ethic and memory skills more than anything else, and also an irrepressible search for knowledge that I was just born with. I didn’t ever think of studying as a chore, I wanted to do it; I wanted to read, to learn, to understand. This knowledge is all irrelevant for the purpose of this blog anyway, I will never give legal advice! But I am well educated enough to know when I know very little. I used my brain to find and pick my editorial team, who do know a lot about the things I’m writing about. In my opinion they are the most knowledgeable, intelligent and passionate people working in their fields.

I couldn’t live without

People! Especially my sister, my children and my parents. Also exercise endorphins and coconuts.
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