Lisa S.
Charismatic model-turned-TV host Lisa S. got her break while she was still in high school. After traveling the world, she is now based in Hong Kong and married to local film industry heavyweight Daniel Wu. She takes a break from promoting her new venture, Glamabox, which sends out beauty samples to subscribers every month, to sit down with Katie Kenny. Video shot by Lisa Lee.
[I went to] high school in [New] Jersey—the armpit of America. It was typical suburbia.
I used to ride horses semi-professionally and show jump.
I was scouted. This woman who was a photographer snapped pictures of me and sent them off to Elite New York. They called my mom to ask her if I was interested in coming to New York for a summer. The summer between my sophomore and junior years in high school I went up to New York to work with Elite, and the day after I graduated from high school I went to Germany. I didn’t go to college for many years. I went to NYU.
[The modeling scene in Hong Kong] is intense. Models get elevated to a different kind of celebrity than anywhere else in the world. If you are in America or Europe, you know the names of supermodels but you very rarely hear them speak. When I arrived in Hong Kong it was a shock having to do interviews.
I’m not complaining. It’s afforded me a lot of luxuries: nice paychecks and products and I live a comfortable life—I can’t bash it. It’s just very strange going from [being] a completely anonymous model to being thrown into the lion’s den, basically.
It’s interesting how in this market you look at models as not only clothes hangers but also as celebrities in the same way [you would] actors and singers. And that is something different from anywhere else in the world.