SKOWHEGAN — Madeline Dalon, of Skowhegan, wants to represent the state of Maine as the 2015 cover model for Jetset magazine, a high-end publication for the world’s richest people.
All she needs are the votes.
Dalon — Madeline Jonelle in the fashion world — is a stay-at-home mother whose boyfriend is a stitcher at the New Balance athletic shoe factory. She is one of five Maine finalists in the online search for a cover model that could earn her a place in Jetset magazine and ultimately a check for $100,000.
Whoever wins the Maine honor goes on to the nationals.
“I was No. 1 for a week, but now it’s getting neck and neck. These girls are really going hard for it,” Jonelle, 26, said at the Skowhegan apartment she shares with Joshua Goodridge, their 4-year-old daughter and her two stepsons, ages 6 and 12. “Right now I’m bouncing between one and two.”
Votes can be cast at the Jetset Magazine contest website and at Madeline Jonelle’s voting page. The deadline is midnight Thursday. Winners in each state will be announced Friday. There were 50 original contestants in the competition in Maine.
Dalon is tall and slender with dark eyes, dark hair and about a dozen colorful tattoos, which she said will enhance her look and give her an edge in the competition.
“I think that tattoos are very beautiful and I just see them as art,” she said. “I just love the fact that you can get art etched into your skin for the rest of your life, and that’s such a beautiful concept.”
Jetset magazine is an affluent lifestyle print and online publication with a targeted readership of the wealthiest 1 percent of people, according to the publication’s Facebook page. The magazine “defines luxury with latest trends in finance, real estate, golf, travel, fashion, watches, private aviation, boating, luxury autos,” the company says.
Previous cover models have included Halle Berry and Jennifer Lopez, Jonelle said.
“I’m probably the oldest in the competition — and the only mother,” she said. “I’m just right. I’m not too old for the industry. I’m not as young as most of the models, but I think I’m right where I should be.”
Dalon graduated from George W. Stearns High School in Millinocket and studied at Eastern Maine Community College in Bangor to become a certified nurse’s assistant. She worked as a CNA in Boston for four years before meeting Goodridge and moving with him to Skowhegan.
She does photo shoots with photography studios throughout Maine, where her photos are used for the studios’ portfolios and advertising, and “she gets the experience, fun and photos,” according to her mother, Tally Leavitt, of Oakland.
Dalon said she first became interested in modeling at age 18 when people began telling her she had just the right figure and looks to be in the fashion industry. She did a photo shoot in Boston two years later, prompting a call from a Portland photographer who offered to produce a portfolio for her. She became pregnant with her first child, Desiree, and since then she has worked with amateur photographers, but not professionally, until a person from Jetset saw her photos and contacted her with an invitation to enter their “Search for the New 2015 Cover Model.”
She said all the tattoos — including the word “intemporel,” a French word for timeless, across her upper chest — will add to her allure.
“Tattoos are beautiful and modeling is very artistic, so if you put an artistic, beautiful model and you add artistic, beautiful tattoos, I feel it makes me that much more beautiful,” she said. “It’s already become very trendy, and it’s starting to be more acceptable, too. You’re starting to see more professional models that have tattoos.”
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter:@Doug_Harlow
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