(Editor’s Note: This interview with model Xanny Disjad was conducted back in October 2011 Tom Heckbert for the now-defunct website Eyestrane.com. It’s been republished at Idol Features courtesy of Tom.)
Xanny grew up in the South of Thailand. Her parents worked very hard to provide for Xanny and her sister. They were not well off but they were a very close-knit and happy family.
Everything was going really good for Xanny until her accident. She was driving her motorcycle and a dog was running across her on the right but she tried to not hit a dog, so she crashed. Three weeks later she woke from a coma after having two brain operations. She narrowly escaped death.
After she recovered and had some time to think about what had happened, she decided she was going to do what was best for herself and for her family. She had been given a second chance and was going to make the best of it.
When she was 16 her family moved north to Bangkok with the hope of starting a new life together. Xanny didn’t like Bangkok. She loves the sea, clean air and nature. Bangkok was a shock to her, a big shock.
Her motivations are her friends and family. Thailand is a very horrible place for many young girls and she made the decision that she would be the very best person she could be in whatever I decided to do.
Xanny has done glamour and bikini, beauty and promotional modeling for three years now, She loves shooting and expanding her knowledge of the modeling industry. Her work includes photo shoots for various international Magazines, Fashion TV Magainze and Hallo Pattaya alongside Music Videos for clients such as Johan Hirvi (Sweeden). She is also an experienced TV Presenter, Spoken Model and Life Coach. She prides herself in always taking on new and exciting challenges – life is for living. You don’t need to be given a second chance to really go for it. So go for it!
EYESTRANE: Xanny, it is a pleasure to meet you. That is quite a story. Let’s start at the beginning though. You grew up in South Thailand. What made you move north to Bangkok?
XANNY DISJAD: It is a pleasure to meet you too. Well, I will start telling you how my life begins in Bangkok and the reason I’m here. My family decided to move to Bangkok because of the bad situation about the terrorists which its still continues now, it made it so my parents couldn’t go out to work anymore because some bad people were looking to kill people, and often we’ve heard about bombs or other horrible things. I couldn’t go to school because we were so afraid about the terrorists so we decided to run away from our hometown to start a new life from zero again, well…It’s the perfect time to start a new life because I’ve just reborn again from the motorcycle accident.
EYESTRANE: The accident must have been devastating to you and your family but you came out of it strong and determined. How do you feel about what you have accomplished since then?
XANNY: I am proud of having gotten through such a hard time for myself and my family. I’m feeling so lucky, even luckier than many other people because I have had such a life experience. I died once and god gave me a second chance. This situation taught me a lot of things about life and the love of my family, especially from my mom. She was very depressed and was going crazy and I know that she must been hurt much more than I was. Twice as much or more but she never stop praying for me. Think of how many people had such a situation but still came out perfectly with health and memories. I’m glad to have a second chance to live my life and it is worth every second I have to do all good things for my family and the others, especially to reach my dreams.
EYESTRANE: You taught yourself English by a rather unique method. Tell us about it?
XANNY: I’ve learned English by carrying dictionary everywhere and was trying to talk to foreigners and watching English movies. I had a favorite movie called “ She is a Man” it was very funny movie, a girl was faking to be a man because she wants to be in a football player…I’ve watched it over and over , maybe I’ve watched it about 30 times, almost everyday (laughs). The best way for me to learn English with movies was listen in Thai and read in English, and then listen in English and read in Thai and press “pause” for the words that I need to look up in the dictionary. I did same thing with the English songs, I love pop and love songs, R&B..so I chose my favorite songs and sang along with the lyrics and opened up my dictionary at the same time.
EYESTRANE: What are some of your favorite movies?
XANNY: As mentioned before, She is a Man, Titanic, Avatar, What happened in Vegas, Hang over, Nothing Hills…etc, these kind of things, I love romance, action, drama, comedy.
EYESTRANE: How is the modeling industry in Thailand?
XANNY: I think modeling industry is getting better now because Bangkok is a very fashionable place now and we have a lot of trendy clothes and other stuff. A lot of media people from overseas are traveling to Thailand because Thailand has many nice spots for photo shoots such as beaches, jungles, waterfalls or old villages. It’s more of a chance for us model, contact them and get the jobs.
EYESTRANE: Was modeling something you have always wanted to do?
XANNY: Yes, modeling is a dream for every young girl. I always wanted to do modeling, and many other things but I’ve reached a lot of them already. Now all I want to do is to continue doing this as long as possible.
EYESTRANE: You do many different types of modeling. Do you have a favorite?
XANNY: My favorite is classy glamour.
EYESTRANE: Any advice for young girls who may want to get into modeling?
XANNY: Start to upload photos on the modeling websites, networking is a very good way to marketing yourself, search for modeling agency and send them your profile and photos. Just be confident and feel beautiful and sexy from inside your heart, stay healthy. You have to love the camera, love communication, make love with the camera when it points at you, sure you will look best when you pose with the passion, remember to be yourself, if you try to be or look like the others then you will never unique.
EYESTRANE: Where do you hope your career goes? Where do you want to see yourself in five years?
XANNY: I hope to have my own businesses including having my own modeling agency, I want to write a book, be a good philosopher and also have a spa business. Now I am trying to save the money that I’ve earned from modeling, so I can start my dream businesses when I have enough money and more free time.
See more of Xanny at Fotoshoot.com and her Facebook fan page.
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About the author
The now-defunct website Eyestrane.com featured many interviews with some very notable ladies. Since said interviews were too good to go unseen after the site was shut down in August of 2014, former Eyestrane editor-in-chief Tom Heckbert has graciously agreed to occasionally resurrect some from his archived files for republication here at Idol Features. Tom and his former staff at Eyestrane always maintained a deep respect for the talent and creativity of the people they interviewed for the site.
