Who will walk the runway during New York Fashion Week and win $20,000? You decide.
Sandra Herman
Must finish first in their group to advance to the Finals.
Voting for this round ends on September 3, 2026 at 10:00 PM EDT
About Sandra Herman
Over 20 years in advertising — these days I sell billboard space, putting other people up on the boards. I'm 55, from Argentina, and this year I took my health back: 30 pounds down, gym most mornings. Just once, I'd love to be the one up there.
Learn More About Sandra Herman
What makes you the Next Runway Star?
Because the runway almost never looks like me, and it should. I'm 55, an immigrant, and I've spent over 20 years in advertising — these days I sell billboard space. I know exactly how much one picture changes what a person believes is possible, because that's what I do every day. Put a woman in her fifties on that runway and you aren't only showing clothes. You're telling millions of women that the story isn't over. I also know how to carry a room. Two decades of walking into meetings as the only woman, the only immigrant, the one with the accent teaches you that. Confidence isn't something I'd have to learn for this — it's already my job. And I would enjoy every second of it!
What would this once in a lifetime experience mean to you and why?
I arrived in this country 25 years ago with a backpack and $50 I had to borrow. I want to be careful how I say this, because it sounds like a line and it isn't: there was no version of that year where I could have pictured a runway. Not the career I built here, not the life, and certainly not this. So what it would mean is simple. Proof — for me, for my daughter, and for every woman who came here the way I did — that the ceiling we assume is above us is mostly one we drew ourselves. And I'm not finished. At 55 I'm still learning, still challenging myself, still putting myself in rooms that scare me a little. This entry is one of them. I'd walk it for the woman with the backpack.
What are you most proud of about yourself or what have you overcome and why?
Six surgeries in six years. Some of what I live with has no cure and no clean treatment. I manage it quietly, most days, and I'm not going to make it dramatic. What I'm proud of is smaller and harder than a triumphant story: I kept showing up. I kept my career. I raised my daughter. And this year, when my body finally allowed it, I took it back 30 pounds at a time. Resilience isn't something you're born with. It's a decision you make again on a Tuesday when nobody is watching, and nothing feels better yet. That's what I'm proudest of, and it's why I'd be good at this. A runway is just one more room you decide to walk into, as you belong.
What would you do with the $20,000 cash prize?
It goes to my daughter's tuition. She's doing her Master's at Columbia right now, in the School of International and Public Affairs—international security policy and international finance and economic policy. I came to this country with a backpack and $50 that wasn't mine. Twenty-five years later, my daughter is at SIPA. That's the whole immigrant arithmetic in one generation, and I'd like to hand it to her with a little less weight attached. Every dollar would go against her program. That's the entire plan.
Content from Sandra Herman
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