"Princess of New York": nine-year-old model pen pals with Michelle Obama

A nine-year-old girl dubbed "the princess of New York" has conquered the US by becoming a model, actress, Mensa member, friend of Michelle Obama and a potential Olympic gymnast.
By Our Foreign Staff
Published: 7:01PM BST 17 May 2010


Fatima Ptacek has appeared in more than 50 national television adverts, while she makes $250,000 (£173,000) a year modelling for brands including Ralph Lauren, Benetton and Gap.Discovered aged five at an open call by a top Manhattan modelling agency, her list of achievements extend to gymnastics, in which she is ranked 15th in New York state and she has aspirations to become an Olympic standard athlete.

Fatima, who recently appeared on the CBS channel"s The Early Show, explained that she is now pen pals with First Lady Mrs Obama, who she met on the set of Sesame Street.
She said Mr Obama was "very sweet, very down to earth", adding "I look up to her – literally".

Her Ecuadorean-born mother Lucia, 34, said: "Since she was five Fatima has been on a whirlwind which has taken her to the capital of fashion Paris and even to Iceland for a fashion photo shoot."She has worked for GAP, DKNY, Ralph Lauren and has even done commercials for McDonalds which are on American television now."Fatima, the youngest of five children, wakes up at 6.30 each morning and attends school – at New York"s Academy for Intellectually Gifted Children in Queens. In the afternoon she attends auditions or shoots, and three times a week heads off to her Russian gym for practice.


On Saturdays she attends her Mandarin classes in the morning and goes horse riding in the afternoon."Her energy and enthusiasm is incredible," Mr Ptacek said. "She is always pushing us to let her do more things at school such as chess or the school play, so we always try and accommodate her, while at the same time keeping an eye on her too."

Source:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7733734/Princess-of-New-York-nine-year-old-model-pen-pals-with-Michelle-Obama.html