This aspiring fashionista who took part in the German version of Next Top Model alongside Heidi Klum has died tragically at 22.
German media report that 22-year-old Saron Ghebremeskel, originally from Eritrea, took her own life.
She grew up in the German Allgau region and then moved to Duesseldorf when she got a job as a flight attendant.
She took part in the contest in 2017 filming in places like the Dominican Republic, but in the end did not impress Heidi Klum, 45, and her jury colleagues in order to make it to the final.
A spokesman for Germany’s Next Top Model (GNTM) praised her and underlined that they did not believe her appearance had had anything to do with her death.
They said: “Saron was a really happy young woman, who wanted to achieve so much. She wanted to try a career as a model, and when she left the programme she was totally okay with the move.”
German newspaper Bild said: “We do not usually report suicides as we do not want to encourage copycats, unless the circumstances warrant it.”
The paper said it felt there were important issues that the young woman’s death raised and urged people to contact the local counselling service either online or via freephone if they were suffering from depression to help find solutions to their problems.
Fellow candidate Klaudia Giez, a fellow model from Berlin who also took part in the 13th GNTM, said: “It is really terrible. I can hardly believe it. I’m on the verge of tears the whole time.”Â
She said that she felt particularly moved by the death because Saron was one of her followers.
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Story By: Michael Leidig, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder, Agency: Central European News
