CAPE'S COVER GIRL A MODEL IN NEW YORK

At Central High School in 1996, Ginny Overholser played a blind woman terrorized in the theatrical thriller "Wait Until Dark." The following spring, she was Mama in "I Remember Mama."

Now 21, Overholser credits her high school drama training with enabling her to become what she is now, a New York City model whose first magazine cover hit the newsstands Friday.

Overholser, who uses her real first name Ginger professionally, is on the cover of the August issue of Mode magazine, a publication that showcases plus-size models who wear sizes 12 and up.

Becoming a model is not supposed to be as easy at it was for Overholser. After graduating from Cape Central in 1997, she went to Southwest Missouri State University to major in theater. While home from school on Valentine's Day 1998, she and her mother decided "to have a blast" taking snapshots.

They spent the day running around Cape Girardeau, changing locations and outfits. The photos were processed in one hour at Wal-Mart and sent via FedEx to Chicago modeling agencies specializing in plus-size models.

Overholser went back to Springfield that night. The next day she received messages from two agencies interested in her.

She signed with Elite Chicago and soon was on her way to Chicago. She modeled there and in Miami a while before deciding that New York City was the place she ought to be.

Overholser has been in ad layouts for Sears and the JCPenney spring catalogue, and Friday did a shoot for Casual Corner. She modeled for a Weight Watchers ad in Birmingham, Ala., and went to Greece for pictures that appeared in the catalogue for the German chain store Quelle.

Modeling, she said in a phone interview from New York, "is not glamorous in the least." The first few times it was fun having people do your hair and makeup, she said. "But most of the time you stand around in shoes too small for you waiting for the photographer to check the light meter."

In the photographs, the clothes all appear to fit beautifully but it's an illusion. "The clothes are always pinned and taped to the model," she says.

Plus-size models are relatively new but increasingly sought after in a fashion industry that loves dressing waifs.

Overholser never was a tiny girl, and for a time disliked being bigger than her friends. But body image ceased being an issue in her life when she saw her first issue of Mode. "All those feeling disappeared," she said. "I still can't feel like there's something wrong with me."

Mode magazine, she says, "is about embracing your figure and loving yourself."

Now there are plus-size supermodels named Emme and Kate Dillon and Sophie Dahl. Dillon was chosen for a People magazine's "Most Beautiful" edition.

"It really helps young girls coming of age to see varieties of women in magazines," Overholser says, "instead of this is pretty, this is not."

Theatricality seems to come naturally to Overholser.

"Little children didn't really understand some of her thought processes," says her mother, Vivian Selby, sales manager for Zimmer Radio Group. "Her toys would become animated. Animals could become human around her. She has a vivid imagination."

In high school, Overholser worked at the Town Plaza Cinemas where, her mother says, "the manager encouraged her eccentricities." She dressed up as Poison Ivy for the latest Batman movie and in '60s regalia when "Austin Powers" opened.

"We didn't have any basic shyness to overcome," Selby said.

Overholser is the daughter of John and Vivian Selby of Cape Girardeau. A Bruce Hornsby song inspired mother to give daughter a little push in the direction she knew she wanted to go.

The song speaks of looking back at your life to see who stole your dreams and seeing only yourself.

"She had a dream of being an actress or a star and going to New York," Selby said. "If she doesn't go for it she doesn't have anybody to blame but herself."

She did worry some about her daughter moving to New York City. "When you're a model you are basically self-employed. ... Then you worry about a young girl from Southeast Missouri surviving in the big city."

Overholser loves living in New York City. "New York is awesome," she says. "It's really the best place to live. Everybody needs to live here at least once."

While still in Cape Girardeau, she also appeared in the River City Players productions of "Greater Tuna" and "Steel Magnolias." Drama has taken her where she wanted to go.

"I couldn't have done any of this if it wasn't for the theater department at Cape Central. So many things you do in the theater department break down your fears," she said. "It's so important that students are involved in the theater department because it really does come in handy later in life."

Jeri Anderson, a friend who is a photographer at Cheekwood Studio in Cape Girardeau, says modeling is ideal for Overholser. "She seeks out the limelight. And she's got charisma overflowing. ... Ginger is Miss Drama. This is so perfect it's unreal."

In high school, Anderson says, Overholser always told her friends she was going to go live in New York City someday. "We knew she could if she wanted to," she said. "It's not that surprising."

Overholser hasn't changed since becoming a professional model, Anderson said. "She's still in awe. She's still Ginny."

Overholser used to lecture Anderson about her appearance, even when going to the grocery store. "I'd go in pajamas and she'd say, No you have to look your best. She'd be in go-go boots."