Coco Rocha has reasons to be late for our cover shoot. First off, it’s the morning after her big charity bash—the second annual Strut for a Cure—in Toronto, presented by FASHION. Rocha worked room and runway, made an endearing speech, met new fans. Long night.

Secondly, duh, she’s a supermodel. Richmond, B.C.’s finest is ranked eighth in the world by Models.com, reps for Rimmel London and air-kisses Anna at the Met Ball. At 21, Rocha has moved beyond “just” modelling, becoming the face of her own personal brand. Not only did she guest-report on this year’s Grammys for ET Canada, but she did so in a (curiously medieval, but never mind) dress of her own design. Yes, yes, she’s launching her own line this season. The name, Rococo, was chosen by one of her 12,000-plus Facebook fans. And 12 days from this shoot, her number one fan—29-year-old interior decorator James Conran—will become her husband.

No one expects such a fashion darling to be on time, and she isn’t. She’s early. Moreover, she’s alone. No booker, no mom-ager, no careful handlers. Not even a tiny dog.

“I thought about bringing the tiny dog!” she says in her lilting, not-quite-serious way. “But no, I don’t want to be that person today.”

Rocha’s enchanted beginnings are super-typical. She was the un-pretty tomboy (“boys would pick on me, you know”) discovered at random (Irish dancing competition) when still very young (14), and was shot to cover status by model-making photog Steven Meisel (“I didn’t know enough about him to be nervous!”).

It is her endings, which she holds firmly in hand like the strings of helium balloons, that make her different. They are happy ones. By all accounts, the tiny Irish dancer has survived six years in the biz without acquiring a drug problem, a string of bad-boy exes or an eating disorder. If there’s one thing troubling her, it’s that her Twitter pleas to Glee producers (“If you ever need a backup dancer, call me!”) have yet to be answered.

What the limpid-eyed, kittenish beaut loves more than being a model is being a role model. In her words: “The girl that doesn’t smoke, drink, party, take off her clothes in every picture.” She has said “no” to more things than most of her peers have said “yes” to, from Dancing With the Stars (“not a good career move, probably”) to shooting with Terry Richardson (“I’ve shot with him, but I didn’t feel comfortable and I won’t do it again”). When her bookings dropped, due, she felt, to her size (a whopping four), she began to speak out—consistently and insistently—about unhealthy model weights. Now she wants to tour schools across Canada, talking self-esteem.

“It hurt at the time,” she says of being sidelined for not being a size zero. “But now I say, ‘You can’t dance with everybody. Someone else will come along.’ I think once James was really part of my life, I was like: ‘Whatever. If you take me, take me. If you don’t, don’t. I’m happy in my skin.’”

She talks about Conran often and swoonily, and by the time this reaches you, readers, she will have married him. The location? A beautiful French château—Conran proposed there in February. The dress? Made by Zac Posen, and looks “like a Barbie ’50s dress.” So she wants the whole fairy tale? “I do,” she says, all rapt.

By now it won’t surprise you that Rocha never wanted to be Kate Moss or Naomi Campbell. She wanted to be Princess Diana. And she must be succeeding, because maybe you think she’s crazy to be marrying so young, so soon, but you also want to believe with her. Or, at least, go to the wedding and jig with her. Don’t you? She is, truly and happily, the people’s model.

Source: Fashion Magazine.