The kind of model Karlie Kloss wants to be is a role model.
At 24 years old, she's spent the last decade gracing the covers of magazines, the runways of fashion weeks and the billboards of the Big Apple. Still, as she told Vogue Australia for the April issue, her career became dissatisfying. However, she found a way to use the the spotlight she had garnered to her advantage.
"Instead of giving up because I was not challenged anymore, I actually reversed it on its head and saw all the opportunities to use this as a platform to do so many other things that I am passionate about, even if I don't have anything to do with fashion," she told the magazine.
The former Victoria's Secret Angel launched the playfully titled Kode With Klossy camp and career scholarship to encourage teenage girls to get more involved in science, math and coding—personal passions for the supermodel.
"I feel a real responsibility to get the girls who are paying attention to me interested in these important skills that can transform their future and help bring them into an industry where there is a real disconnect and disproportionate number of men to women in the field," she explained.
"I underestimated how many girls would be aware of the importance of it and there are so many bright young minds who are aware of how powerful it can be to take part in shaping the future with technology."
In the process of her new pursuits, the star is hoping to prove her own naysayers wrong and help fellow young ladies do the same.
"I don't want to be complacent, and I don't want to just be one thing," she said.
"I'm sure people underestimate me all the time, but that only motivates me to prove them wrong and to actually beat them at their own game," Kloss continued.
"I have this sense of competition with myself to be the best I can at whatever I'm trying to do, and to take the path less trodden."