Life after Dancing with the Stars: Why Thalia Heffernan is one to watch
THALIA HEFFERNAN recently adopted a pet who she named after two of the most influential men in her life — Leonard Cohen and David Bowie.
She and her rescue dog have been pretty much inseparable since she first brought him home.
“He’s a lurcher and I called him Leonard, after the late Leonard Cohen,” she tells me, her eyes lighting up.
“He’s got heterochromia, so he’s got two different-coloured eyes, like David Bowie. They’re two massive figures in my life, especially Leonard Cohen, so that’s where the inspiration comes from.
"Watching him run on the beach brings me so much joy. His full name is Leonard Bowie Heffernan.”
Does she call him by his full name when she’s chasing him on the beach?
“Only when I get really mad, then the three names come out! I call him Len most of the time.”
Her affection for Leonard — the musical one and the canine one — is one of many quirky things I learn about Heffernan, a woman who works in an industry whose very foundation seems based on vanity and perfection, but who comes across as amiable and down to earth.
In person, she bears the same striking features and elegant poise that we’ve seen in countless photo shoots, the looks that have made her one of the country’s best-known and most successful models.
She has a sense of wisdom and maturity beyond her years (she has just turned 22) partly brought about, perhaps, by the fact she has been working as a model since she was just 15 years old, and travelled the world for her job.
But there’s a thoughtfulness to her that belies the more narrow-minded view of her industry, and a determination that she use her high profile to achieve some good.
Tonight, she puts her dancing shoes back on to raise funding for Breast Cancer Ireland’s research and awareness programmes around the country.
Battle of the Stars, which takes place in Dublin’s Intercontinental Hotel and is sponsored by the Joe Duffy Group, will see Thalia and other celebrities take to the dancefloor.
Her participation in Dancing With the Stars gave her a foundation, but tonight involves a whole new dance routine.
“I started off doing the quickstep which was a nightmare to start on. And the rumba and the jive — those were the three dances I got to do on the show.
“I’m doing the samba for this and it’s like a whole new world. It’s an amazing dance and I’ve always loved to watch the samba, but I’ve never been in any way trained in it. This is my first attempt so we’ll see how that goes,” she smiles.
The opportunity to use her profile from the hit RTÉ show to support Breast Cancer Ireland was a no-brainer as far as the Dublin model was concerned.
“I think with breast cancer, being a woman is your biggest draw to helping other women. It can happen to anyone, and it’s such an awful thing to happen.
“I know so many people who’ve been affected by breast cancer. I’m quite lucky that it hasn’t really been in my direct family, but so many family friends, people who I’ve grown up with have had mothers, sisters, friends, and teachers affected by breast cancer. This was something I could lend my services to, because of the dance show.
“It (the charity’s work) is so heavily researched based, there’s so much we can do. In the last few years it’s come on so much, that the more we can continue to push it, fund it, you never know what could happen in a few years time. The funds are so important to ensure it keeps going that way.”
If the cliche about the fashion industry is that it’s full of people who are vain and self-serving, Heffernan quickly puts paid to that.
She has a strong sense of empathy, and shares posts about self-esteem and positive body image on her instagram account.
One post, on beauty, after a recent Victoria Secret model show, where she wrote — “Your shape or size or features do not define you. No matter what, you are still beautiful” — quickly went viral.
Her thoughtfulness comes partly, you feel, from an awareness that people may see the striking poses and glamorous photo shoots of models and conclude they lead a perfect life.
“I never really expected to have a voice. Growing up, you’ll always come to bumps in the road, and a lot of them tend to be about physical appearance because of the way the world is going with social media, photoshop, editing, this lavish Instagram life that people are living at the moment. People think and expect that to be real, but it’s not.
“What I did with that post was to just try to bring people back down to earth a little bit, by opening up myself. I think people do see me on social media and assume I live this lavish life.”
After all, she knows the weight of expectation and rejection, having taken up modelling part-time when she was just 15. Her mother, Susan Ebrill, was also a model.
“It’s not an easy industry, don’t get me wrong. It takes a lot to be successful, and I’ve a lot of respect for other models who’ve done really well.
“But it’s a lot of pressure on young shoulders — you’re travelling, you’ve got school, and going to castings, quite literally walking into a room hoping that you’re physically good enough.
"It’s nothing to do with you, but it took me quite a while to understand the industry. You could go into a casting and there could be 50 people before you, behind you, in the queue, and they’re all these stunningly beautiful girls.”
A big personal knock-back came three years ago, when she developed an illness while working in Australia.
Not only did it impact on her physical and mental well-being, it caused a weight gain that she feared would greatly affect her career.
Far from home and unsure of what was wrong with her health, she was eventually diagnosed with an underactive thyroid, but it was a worrying and unsettling time.
“I put on 14 kilos in two months. I couldn’t work. I’d been modelling for four years and then all of a sudden, and there was no explanation as to why… with underactive thyroid, it wasn’t just the weight — and that was very, very tough for me because of my job — but it also affects your mental state and your physical state.
"You’re very lethargic. I had a bout of insomnia from it so not only was I tired, physically and mentally, but I couldn’t actually sleep.
“Depression is one of the side affects, you get anxious. I was on my own in Australia. It was a really tough time, and it took a lot out of me, I was in this city in the other side of the world.
"When I came home, I moved in with my mum. It took a while for me to go: ‘there’s something not right here’.”
ITH the help of medication she made a full recovery and is now grateful for this buoyant period of her life. She has never been busier and loved her DWTS experience.
It brought her not only friendship but romance, and she’s now dating professional dancer Ryan McShane, who she formed a bond with on the show.
“I got to meet so many new friends. Katherine Lynch will be a friend for life, and Denise McCormack, my boyfriend’s dance partner, has an absolute heart of gold. All of them have a special place in my heart — we were a family. It was a magical experience.
“Going on TV was hard when you’ve only ever been a face. I was often going into rehearsals after a long day because I was adopting Leonard, covered in dog hair. I’m a very glamorous person altogether!
"It was a chance to show the real me. I’ve got flaws, I’ve got imperfections and I have things about myself that I don’t like. I was rocking around in my tracksuit bottoms, and being me because I hate the idea of people thinking I’m only that girl they see on the internet.
"I met the most incredible people, it was an amazing experience and I enjoyed every second of it.”
She is studying advanced animal psychology and behaviour in her free time and hopes to have a bigger role in this area in the future.
“You can start modeling so young, because of the kind of work it is, and I started when I was 15. I did my studies, did my Leaving Cert, and juggled work and school as best I could.
"Since the Leaving Cert, I’ve made a career out of it so far. I study as well in my off time, which doesn’t seem to be a thing at the moment.”
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