Hi, I’m Madison Schill. At some point my last name used to be Von Schiller, which I think if my family hadn’t changed several generations ago, would have made me seem way cooler, which I probably could have used. I started modelling at age 15, and was then signed to FORD models worldwide, where I had the chance to build a home in Paris, New York and all the airports in between during the most formative years of my life.
One day I woke up and felt full with this type of experience; I felt it was time to begin cultivating my voice, so I enrolled at the University of Toronto, where I’m currently finishing a degree in theoretical physics, french, and whatever else sparks my curiosity.
I am immensely drawn to fashion (perhaps more so than ever before), and to honour that passion of mine, I’m associate producing a documentary on diversity in the fashion industry while working on growing a tech-based fashion platform, which launches in several months. I’ve worked at several fashion magazines, and enjoy threading my love for real, honest humanity through anything I write about in the industry.
I’m the Co-founder of a website, Mind Over Model, aimed at sharing an honest, intellectual perspective of our industry with young people, without making it seem like homework at all. A lot of what I do is based all over the world, and I feel New York pulling me back into it’s orbit. One thing is for sure, though; wherever I go, whatever people think of me, I’m a Canadian, first.
We asked asked Madison, what does the concept of chasing your passion mean to you?
"To me, chasing my passion is akin to chasing the tiny voice in my head that tells me I should be doing the things that scare me; the things I see other people not doing and feel I could create. I’m passionate about connections, about making people feel like fully-formed versions of themselves, about waking up in the morning with stardust in my throat because I’m that excited to start my day. Chasing my passions is about saying “look, I’m human, and I own that. But what I’m about to do, what I’m about to create, that isn’t…and its legacy will last far longer than I ever will.”