Stratton man establishing himself as male model

By Heather Latter
Staff writer

Mark Heyens of Stratton has proven you don’t have to be from the city to become a fashion model.
The early twenty-something has begun to establish a career in modelling, travelling all over North America and even to China!
“It’s weird,” Heyens replied when asked what it’s like to get into modelling after living in a small town.
“I am from Stratton, where there are more cows than people,” he noted. “I get to experience things that most people in their life will never be exposed to or even get to see.
“I have always wanted to travel and see the world, and this is a way to do so and to meet people from every corner of the world,” he added. “I am grateful to be able to do what I do.”
Heyens graduated from Rainy River High School and went to college in Thunder Bay to study television broadcasting.
While looking for work there last spring, Heyens entered himself in a Model and Talent Search Canada competition and was selected to move on and compete in Toronto.
He won two awards and had 13 different agencies trying to sign him on. He eventually decided to sign with Giovanni Model Management in Toronto and moved there to live.
“I always wanted to be a model/actor all my life,” Heyens noted. “I just never really said anything to anyone except a few people because, I don’t know, I was kind of embarrassed about saying I wanted to be a male model, but now I . . . just love doing what I do.”
His first big break was with FASHION magazine, where he recently was featured in the September issue on three different pages.
Last month, he flew to Shanghai, China, where he has done two runway jobs and a catalogue shoot.
“It all happened within three months and now I am in China modelling,” Heyens remarked.
“My career thus far has been great. I mean, I started from scratch just six months ago,” he added. “I am happy with my progression and only hope to get better at what I do.”
He noted as soon as modelling becomes a chore for him, he will find something else to do.
“If I may quote my father, Paul Heyens, ‘If you like what you do, you will never work a day in your life,’ and I believe that,” he stressed.
“Being a model is so many things—it’s exciting, it’s new, it’s actually pretty much what you see on television or in movies,” Heyens continued. “It’s a pretty crazy ride and you just have to hang on for the ride of your life.”
He said he particularly enjoys travelling and meeting new people, but added one downside is that sometimes people in the industry are not very polite to one another.
He also indicated it’s difficult because if you don’t work, you don’t get paid.
“If you don’t have a great book, you don’t get much work, and your book is like a model’s résumé,” Heyens explained.
“It’s your life,” he stressed. “It’s how you get paid and that’s why I am overseas is to build my book so I can work more in Canada and the U.S.”
Heyens also is set to play a waiter (a non-speaking role) in an upcoming movie called “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” starring Rachel McAdams.
“We are so very proud of him,” said his mother, Donna.
Heyens also thanked his family for supporting him in his career.