Schoolgirl beauty Sarah Baxter has beaten 8,000 other girls to win through to the finals of a national modelling competition.

Sarah, 16, of Wytham, is one of six finalists competing to win a year-long modelling contract, her face on the cover of a teen magazine and a trip to Los Angeles.

She was entered for the competition in Sugar magazine by schoolfriend Ellie Hailey and knew nothing about it until the magazine rang her.

Sarah, a pupil at Headington School, Oxford, initially went for a selection day in Essex last month and was contacted to say she was in the last 25. This was then whittled down to six after a meeting with the Select model agency in London.

She said: "I was really excited when I found out. I never thought I'd get anywhere at all so to get to the last six is a real thrill. When I first heard I absolutely screamed.

"I just had this gut feeling I wouldn't get through so once I found out I couldn't believe it. I was so happy.

"I've never done anything like this before."

Sarah, who is 5ft 6ins tall, said she did not think she would be tall enough to do catwalk modelling but would be interested in magazine work.

"I'd love to do modelling as a career. That would be great," she added.

But does she stick to a "typical" model's diet of carrot sticks and lettuce leaves?

She said: "I just eat normally, like anyone else. I'm lucky that I'm quite slim anyway but I don't just eat fruit all the time. I'm just the same as any other teenager."

And her favourite model is Kate Moss because she "doesn't seem to be full of herself".

The winner of the competition will be decided by Sugar readers. Even if Sarah does not come top she will still receive £150 worth of Miss Selfridge vouchers as a runner-up.

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