Mischa Barton

By Ines Mendoza

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Is there such thing as a supermodel anymore?  Really? The glamour days of Elle, Naomi and Cindy are all but gone... 

Sure, the ladies of Victoria's Secret are holding the flag up high for all those within the industry - but where are the real role models?! I'm talking about a woman that young teenage girls can admire, mimic and learn about celebrity tantrums from. 

For at least the last five years, in this fashion reporter's eye, no one has been able to step up to the plate. 

So as a planet, we have looked elsewhere. We have forgotten about the grace associated with the cat-walk (please discard your negative knowledge of Kate Moss and move on) and turned not to our movie screens - but to our TV sets. 

I give to you miss Mischa Barton.

Born on January 24, 1986 - this spritely woman in her early 20s has risen to the heights of Hollywood quicker than Kate Moss can snort a line off a toilet seat (I do urge you to discard your negative knowledge of her). Her role in the hit TV teen series The O.C. has allowed her to party with the Hollywood elite - drinking mocktails with Nicole Ritchie and doing God-knows-what with Paris Hilton in LA's hottest nightspots.

It's a life we all envy, and one which, in the old days, was limited to the few who dared to run the catwalk, the proud few who owned the silver screen and the hundreds of former child stars who never understood the term "fame is fleeting"...and Corey Feldman.

Barton was born in London, England, to an English father and an Irish mother. However the family, including her sisters Hania and Zoe soon moved to New York City when she was just four years old.

At the age of 8, Mischa and her sisters were sent to summer camp. So what, you may say? Well, here's the thing - one of the activities involved the children writing their own monologues and performing them for their parents. Mischa is said to have wrote a piece about turtles and her delivery was so impressive that an agent who was scouting for talent told her parents they had a star on their hands. 

Beginning her acting career at the age of nine in New York Theatre with a lead role in Slavs!, written by Tony Kushner - and not to be confused with "Slaves!: The Musical", Adolf Hitler's unsuccessful foray into musical theatre. She took part in many plays, even taking a lead role in James Lapine's "Twelve Dreams". 

Doing theatre was rewarding but Barton was hungry for more. In 1994, she became a recurring character on the long-running ABC soap opera "All My Children", a job she held for a year. But in the meantime, her radiant beauty was attracting interest. Before she had even entered her teens, Barton was already signed to the Ford Modeling Agency, and in that capacity she modeled in a Calvin Klein campaign and worked for the likes of Gitano and Vogue.

But it was Barton's acting skills that gave her the most recognition. One of her first feature film roles was in 1997's Lawn Dogs, opposite Sam Rockwell (recently seen in The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy). In 1999, she appeared in Pups, a modern take on Bonnie & Clyde; along with the summer hit Notting Hill, with Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant; and the international Bruce Willis blockbuster The Sixth Sense, in which she played a young ghost seeking reparation.

For the next couple of years, Barton appeared with Jennifer Jason Leigh and Drew Barrymore in Skipped Parts (2000), hired not just for her pretty appearance but moreso for her skills as an improving actor. She then co-starred with Jessica Alba in Paranoid (2000), starred alongside Melanie Griffith and Dominique Swain in Tart (2001), appeared with Courtney Love and Lili Taylor in Julie Johnson (2001), and starred in Lost and Delirious (2001), a film that explored lesbianism at a private boarding school.

Aged 17, Barton was given the "Next Big Thing" tag by influential fashion mag Glamour, and was signed by ethical cosmetics company Neutrogena to be a spokesmodel, appearing in marketing campaigns that included television advertisements among other duties.

Appearing in the ABC drama "Once and Again" briefly, it was the break-out phenomenon of her poor little rich girl character Marissa Cooper that catapulted the beautiful and talented girl into the stardomic stratosphere. At a petite 5"7', this recently naturalized U.S citizen (3rd February 2006) has become the envy and idol of thousands of teenage girls around the world (and tireless inspiration for thousands of teenage boys).

So what is next for Ms. Barton? A girl entering womanhood with the world at her disposal could do practically anything she wishes, but could also step into a perilous pond, easily going the way of so many. And in five years time we may again be asking the question "James Van Der Beek who?".

But the intelligent celebrity gamblers out there are putting their money on 'thrive', rather than 'dive'. Many expect her to take the next step, taking a lead role in a major motion picture, with rumours suggesting she may star in an all-female remake of Stanley Kubrick's violent opus Clockwork Orange, but set in Taipei instead of a futuristic Britain. Regardless of the future, Mischa is the woman of the moment - the epitome of lust, style, and fashion.

Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown	Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown
Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown	Source: Unknown Photography: Unknown