<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"As the oldest of three sisters, Neelam Gill isn't used to being the baby of the family. But she's fast finding out it's not such a bad gig when you're the newest member of the Burberry clan and everyone from Jourdan Dunn to Christopher Bailey is welcoming you with open arms\u2014not to mention giving you a few tips on how to make it down your very first catwalk.\n\nThat's right: The 18-year-old from Coventry, England walked her first show ever at London Fashion Week this past September, debuting at Burberry. A coveted spot in the British brand's spring campaign, lensed by the legendary Mario Testino, soon followed. Those trench-coat-and-tartan-clad kids plastered on billboards and in the pages of magazines? Yep, she's one of them.\n\nWhile career highs like this would be a major deal for anyone, it's doubly so for Neelam, who's the first Indian model ever to be cast in a Burberry campaign, joining the ranks of slightly more expected girls like Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne. \"Before doing the show, it didn't really cross my mind,\" she says. \"But afterwards I went on Style.com and was looking through the pictures, and I realized that I was the only Indian model.\" Then came the tweets, the messages, and the 'We're so proud of you!'s. \"That's when it really dawned on me.\" (And if her name sounds almost-familiar to you, it could be because until recently she went by Neelam Johal.)\n\nShe may be an industry rookie, but Neelam recognizes the significance of her role. \"Fashion reaches all different ethnicities, and the market is so wide now that customers truly aren't going to be just one skin tone,\" she says. \"I'm really happy that I'm working for a company that embraces diversity, especially because Burberry's a British brand and they realize that being British doesn't just mean being white.\" This patriotism extends to other areas of her life, too\u2014notably the kitchen, where she specializes in whipping up classic English dishes like chicken and meat pie and roast dinners. Do we smell a guest spot on Jourdan Dunn's cooking show in the future? We sure hope so.\n\nSpeaking of celebs, Neelam's already managed to reach the pinnacle of sightings: Harry Styles, who was \"really nice and friendly\" when she met him backstage at Fashion Week. Though for the most part, her musical tastes tend to favor the other side of the Atlantic: \"I go to tons of concerts,\" she says, rattling off a list of favorites that include Jay-Z, Kanye West, and her number one: Drake. \"I love Drake so much,\" she says, laughing.\n\nA bookworm at heart, Neelam graduated high school last year with A-levels (that's Brit speak for advanced courses) in English literature and language, as well as history and psychology. She has her sights on pursuing psych in college eventually, but made the decision early on to give herself a year to try out this whole modeling thing. Needless to say, she's off to a raring good start.\n\nThough she may not have homework to do at the moment, waiting around on set gives her plenty of time to indulge her love of reading. Right now, To Kill a Mockingbird is stashed in her bag right alongside the high heels she totes to castings\u2014heels that, a few months ago, she didn't even know how to walk in. Luckily, dedication pays off, and for the three months between Neelam's first casting and her Burberry debut, she \"literally practiced every day, in loads of different heels. I would go to my agency and practice in front of all the bookers until it was perfect.\" With that kind of work ethic, we're sure to be seeing a whole lot more Neelam in the very near future."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/neelam-johal-gill-model>