Sayda Hartoonian beat the odds to walk the runway at London Fashion Week

As far back as Sayda Hartoonian can remember, she has always wanted to be runway fashion model.

The North Hollywood woman is getting that chance on Friday when she makes her international debut at London Fashion Week in England.

Hartoonian, whose professional name is Sayda Word, isn’t any ordinary fashion model. She doesn’t meet “industry standards” and is quite possibly the shortest model to walk the London runway. First of all, she’s only 5’ 3,” and even though she’s only 25 years old, it could be said she’s older than most models about to “retire.”

She attributes her good fortune to hard work, dedication, passion, networking and social media, the avenue she took to build a resume when traditional avenues weren’t working.

“As soon as they realized I was 5’ 3,” they immediately turned me away for my height without fail,” Hartoonian said. “Now I have close to 100,000 followers on Instagram and my videos are averaging from one million to 44 million viewers. Streaming got me more of a worldwide audience and gave me a strong enough presence to open up doors that would not have been able to be opened prior.”

She believes many people in various industries are set in their ways, but she said a determined individual can use social media to get past stereotypical thinking. “That’s why this is so amazing and so powerful,” Hartoonian said. “I’m ecstatic that I get to walk. I was so happy that I was crying. This will be a huge moment in my life. It will take one person to pave the way and I want to be that one person to pave the way for petites.”

Link to story: https://bikininewsdaily.com/bnd/SaydaHartoonianbeattheod-195