By Christine R. Walsh

Grafton’s Lauren Browne is living The Dream ~ the fashion dream, that is. At 15, she started modeling in Boston. At 16, she moved to Manhattan all by her lonesome into a models’ apartment and started posing and pleasing the camera. Now, at the tender age of 18, she is rocking the runway on Bravo TV’s Project Runway in front of Heidi Klum, designer Michael Kors, and many more fashion luminaries. Lauren’s face and body have hit the big time.

Beyond a rockin’ bod and a beautiful face, this teen has a great heart and personality to match. But she says she didn’t start out that way.

“When I was younger I had braces and I had glasses and I was a big dork,” she giggled in a recent phone interview with Pulse Magazine. “I was always very thin and very tall and the height and the weight, they kind of just stuck with me. Modeling was something that other people suggested and they started pushing me in that direction. After a while, I realized my height and my weight were definitely working to my advantage.”

In the early days of her modeling, Browne worked her teeny, determined butt off to get her name and face out there, going on a number of casting calls.

“A casting call is basically an audition for models for jobs,” Browne explained. “You put on a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt and wear your hair down. You walk in and they look at you, along with any pictures you might have had taken for your portfolio or tear sheets from magazines. And they judge you on how you look. Either you get the job or the contract or you don’t. Right there on the spot. It is intimidating,” Browne acknowledges. “The first few times you hear ‘No,’ it’s a little sad as you go but after a while you get used to it and you realize that it is a job and the clients are looking for something specific. You are not going to be a million different people. If you don’t get one job you will get another. You just have to wait it out.”

This positive attitude and great sense of self-esteem has helped Browne navigate the shark-infested waters of a very cutthroat world. With her family standing firmly behind her and supporting every move she makes, there is very little that Browne cannot do ~ even a in a world where looks are everything and eating disorders run rampant.

“I don’t diet and I don’t exercise. I’m tall and lanky,” Browne confessed. “Even if I wanted to I couldn’t change it. I think the more you worry about your weight, the worse it gets because you’re constantly watching what you eat. It becomes too much. It’s almost scary to see some of these girls who obsess about their weight to the point where it takes over their lives. It’s consuming. They just don’t know where to stop. Someone might tell the models that they need to lose five pounds but they will take it too far.”

After many amazing gigs in Boston and New York, hob-knobbing with people like Kanye West and Justin Timberlake, Browne landed the job of model on Project Runway. But such an honor was not without its price.

“My agency in New York called me… this is brutal… at 10’oclock the night before Project Runway started,” Browne remembered. “I was in Boston, visiting my family at home. The agency called and said, ‘You booked Project Runway’ and I was very happy. ‘But,’ they said, ‘it starts filming tomorrow at 5 in the morning.’ So I jumped in the car, raced back to the city, got a very big speeding ticket and I was very exhausted. I was so tired and so upset. I was running on adrenaline alone because I had gotten no sleep. And then the first week, my designer (Simone) was eliminated!”

Browne stood on that judging block (we Project Runway faithfuls know that not only are designers eliminated every week, but their models can be, too, since models are competing for their own prizes ~ a spread in Elle Magazine ~ as well!) in sheer frustration, she said. She had broken the sound barrier in her car in order to make it to New York for the taping, was now the proud owner of a huge speeding ticket and hadn’t slept in 48 hours. Luckily, the modeling gods smiled down on the blond haired beauty and another designer, Jillian, asked to have Browne stay on as her model. So began an amazing opportunity that was watched by millions. Jillian, as we all suspected she would, was chosen ~ with Lauren as her model ~ as one of the finalists (“The Final Three,” to those of us in the know!) who would get to show their work at THE fashion promised land, aka Bryant Park, during Fashion Week.

Now that the season finale of PR has come and gone, all of us addicted to the show know that Browne’s designer, Jillian, did not win the contest and designer Christian took home the fashion gold, so to speak. Christian’s model, Lisa, won a prize as well – that coveted spread in Elle. But Browne’s spirit and love of the fashion world have not been dampened.

“I’m not all that worried about not winning,” said Browne. “I’ve been in plenty of magazines and I enjoyed the experience. I loved my designer, we made a great team ~ she was serious and I am really into fun. I think if I had been with someone who was just like me we never would have gotten any work done.”

And prize or no prize, this hometown hottie got to have the time of her life at the season finale party.

“It was a blast! The whole cast and crew was invited and everyone got very drunk! It was hilarious!” Browne recalled. “The best was seeing Tim Gunn tipsy! My mother read about the party in the newspapers and joked with me about having a wild time.”

Now that the season has ended, Browne can return to her normal life, which was put on hold during the filming.

“There were many things I had to put on hold for the show,” she said. “Bookings, jobs, shows. But if I had to do it over again I think I would. There were days where I dreaded getting out of bed I was so tired. And the models spend a great deal of time with the designers. On the show, you only see us with the designers for a few minutes, but we are really with them all day.”

It was during one of those long days when Browne received her greatest compliment from designer Jillian.

“She said I was her first muse,” remembered Browne. “That was huge.”

Interacting with the famous and fabulous Heidi Klum was also a feather in Browne’s cap, despite rumors about the model/ tv show hostess.

“People told me not to take it personally if Heidi didn’t talk to me much. Apparently, she doesn’t like tall, thin and young blond models. But Heidi was very nice ~ always singing and talking about her husband.”

For now, the days of waking up at the crack of dawn for make up and hair appointments are on hold for Browne. “No one enjoys being poked and prodded so early in the morning. And thanks to so much time in the hair dresser’s chair, I think my scalp is numb!” declared Browne. At this time, she is scheduled for some BCBG runway shows and hopes to get booked in some more Victoria’s Secret shows. But Browne is also thinking about a future after modeling, sharing that “I’d like to be a meteorologist. My uncle is one. And I would love to try it.”

Pulse predicts many sunny skies for this sweetheart.

For more information on Project Runway, go to www.bravotv.com/Project_Runway/index.php