Goss Cover Star: Thalia Heffernan

Thalia Heffernan has never been afraid to bare it all when it comes to her personal life.

Best known as one of Ireland’s top models, the 29-year-old is our Goss Cover Star for September, a fitting month to feature someone so synonymous with fashion.

Following a year full of ups and down and huge life changes, Thalia is feeling happier than she’s ever been – she’s found love again and taken on an exciting new venture, but she doesn’t sugarcoat how she got to this point.

If you’re familiar with the modelling scene in Ireland, its highly unlikely you haven’t come across Thalia.

The Dublin native broke onto the scene at just 15 years old, and used to show up to castings and photoshoots in her school uniform.

Back then, her nickname with photographers and stylists was “Babyface Heffernan”.

“I don’t think I’ve lost that. Thank God for genetics,” she joked, before admitting it can sometimes be a hinderance as she can’t buy a bottle of wine without getting ID’d.

“To be fair I never wear makeup and I wear boys clothes, so I guess I probably look like a teenager… but I’m close to 30!”

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On the day of our shoot, I was greeted with a warm hug by “Babyface Heffernan” as she arrived to Goss HQ dressed down with eye patches on.

The last time I interviewed Thalia was last December – she had just moved back from New York following a turbulent year.

During our chat, the 29-year-old candidly shared how she came to the decision to return to Ireland after finding herself struggling both mentally and physically.

While she was in the Big Apple and competing with the world’s top models, Thalia’s health started to deteriorate rapidly, which she now knows was the result of polycystic ovary syndrome.

In the midst of all of this, Thalia was dealing with a breakup, as she decided to end her relationship with her boyfriend of six years, Ryan McShane, in January 2023.

Almost a year after she took the plunge and decided to move home, Thalia tells me she has “no regrets” about coming back to Ireland.

“I am a home bird. I’ve always been a home bird. I’ve travelled and lived in so many places, but I just find myself back here. It feels right,” she said.

“I think probably when I last spoke to you I was like ‘oh yeah, everything’s fine. Everything’s good’. But now I’m like, oh everything does happen for a reason. I’m believing that, and I’m just very happy to be back.

“I don’t like to have regrets. I mean, obviously, there’s times where I question my decisions, like everyone does, especially such big decisions like changing country and new career paths and all that stuff, and I’ve been doing a lot of new things recently.

“But I don’t like to look at it as regrets, I just look at it as challenges and learning from making new decisions and giving myself new opportunities to grow. If I change my mindset that way, I often find it’s hard to have regrets. You just have lessons, if that makes sense.”

“I’ve travelled and lived in so many places, but I just find myself back here”

Earlier this summer, Thalia took a brief break from modelling after being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

The Dublin native had been suffering from ill health for quite some time, and her specialist believes it was triggered by stress while she was living in New York.

“It started in New York, but there’s been two times in my life that it’s been triggered badly, so she thinks it’s like a stress-triggered PCOS. When you have it it’s actual cysts on your ovaries, it shows up in a scan, you can see it, it’s physical,” she said.

“But symptoms-wise mine seem to be on set with bad stressful situations. Which is great because everything in life that’s bad gets triggered by stress, and then my body just shuts down. So that’s something we have to learn to manage, but it’s fine. It is what it is.

“So it started in New York, I lost my periods, but I actually gained weight. So in my job, weight is obviously incredibly important, but was like water weight. This happened to me when I was 19 as well, and my thyroid ended up getting involved, which can quite often happen because it’s hormone-based. So when your hormones go into fluctuation, a lot of things fall off the radar or things start to go off kilter. So back then it took me a long time to recover from, and naturally, thankfully, I did manage.”

“Now, it took me a good year and a bit to get my diagnosis, because I think it’s something like 80% of women diagnosed with PCOS are considered obese, because of your hormone fluctuation imbalance, it can affect your weight. But because my BMI is healthy, and if not maybe a little bit under at the time, nobody tested me for PCOS.

“Because there’s three different ways of being diagnosed. It’s either your blood work, a scan, or symptoms, and you have to have two of the three. My blood work was showing up relatively fine. So whenever I went to get bloods, nobody was looking at PCOS as an option, they just thought it was stress because of the environment I was in, I was just getting told to go on antidepressants.

“So it took me a long time and many, many doctors to try and figure this out. I mean every doctor was amazing in their own way, but I just found it really hard to be listened to. So finally, I met an amazing doctor and she was like ‘I’m going to put you in for a scan’.

“So I went for a scan and straight away in the inter vaginal scan, which is the inside one, they were like ‘See the size of your ovaries? Twice the size as normal’. She showed me all the cysts and it was literally like a a light bulb went off my head. I was like, I’m not crazy, it’s not in my head.”

“I was like, i’m not crazy, it’s not in my head”

Thalia admitted it was a “relief” to get the diagnosis, as it was finally clarification that she wasn’t “crazy” – however, the news was also “bittersweet”.

“Getting a diagnosis is always a bit tricky because you don’t know what that can mean in your future because it can lead to fertility issues and all that stuff, and my mum did have fertility issues. So I’ve always had a question mark around my fertility,” she explained.

Thalia noted that her mum had to have surgeries in order to get pregnant, and having discussed PCOS with her, they think she probably had it too.

“I don’t have fear around that anymore, but any diagnosis is always like ‘oh okay, that’s something I have to live with now’. And it is fine, but I got my diagnosis maybe five/six months ago, and I’m still dealing with it.

“So we have a few more tests to run, there could be more underlying issues, we don’t know. So I’m still in the throes of it, but I’ve definitely come to terms with it, and so many women have it. So it’s not something that I’m isolated in, which is nice.

“But it’s just another kind of lesson, and I think when I was in New York and when all the symptoms triggered badly, that led to when I came home to renew my visa, and it led to a lot of the questions of ‘do I want to go back there?'”

“I think last year was a very, very hard year for me. I think anyone who works for themselves and takes big risks, like I did moving to New York, until you stop I think your body just keeps going, you just run into fight or fight mode. So when I stopped I kind of had to go ‘You’re not well. Your body is telling you you’re not well. Your mind is telling you you’re not well. You need to try and fix this.’

“And I’m glad I decided to give myself that rest and come home and figure it out. And yes, that means I do miss New York, and I feel like I could have done more. But then, like anything, upon reflection, I did so much in that city. I met so many people. I worked for the most incredible brands. I worked with the biggest agency in the world. I experienced things that so few people in the world get the chance to.

“I’m so lucky and so blessed, and it’s amazing that I could do that, come home, and start my healing journey. And so many amazing things have happened since I came home as well. So you can look at life in two ways, you can look at the what ifs and then the what have you done, and I’m starting to look towards the positives of life.

“It’s amazing what I managed to do, and what’s come out of it has been incredible. Who knows what will happen in the future, but for now, it was definitely the right decision. I’m really glad I made it.”

The last time I spoke to Thalia she was still dealing with the fallout of her split from professional dancer Ryan McShane, who she met when she appeared on Dancing with the Stars in 2017.

They were together for six years and shared her rescue dogs, Lennie and Charlie, together.

The pair quietly split last January, but Ryan publicly announced the news months later after she praised him for being so supportive of her move to NYC in a newspaper interview.

At the time, he wrote on Instagram: “In response to this article, I wish to set the record straight. Thalia ended the relationship with me in January and returned to New York. Just want to thank my friends and family for all the support given to me and the boys.”

Looking back at that time, Thalia revealed she’s done a lot of healing since then, and wished Ryan well as she acknowledged the news that he’s set to become a father.

“All of the New York situation, there was so many elements involved in that,” she said. “There was the break up, there was the move, there was the change of the agency… Honestly, everything. Everything short of just a major accident. It just felt like a lot had happened.

“So yeah, it takes a lot to process all of those things, because when you get hit by a lot of stuff, they all start to merge into one and you kind of can’t figure out where one problem starts and the other ends. It just becomes this one knot of issues and anxieties, and I’ve started to really release that knot over the last few months, and it’s been very cathartic and very good.

“And I see that Ryan has moved on and he’s pregnant with his girlfriend, and I’m so happy for him because I know he’ll be an amazing dad. So I actually find a lot of comfort in that, and I’m really glad that he’s happy. And I think that also helps in my journey and me meeting someone myself.

“You know, finding love again, I didn’t expect it to happen because I really wanted to give myself enough time to heal from not just the breakup, just everything. I have a tendency to jump into relationships, I was always in relationships.

“So I wanted to give myself enough time to heal from everything that had happened and figure out my diagnosis and what was going on in my body, because I knew something was wrong, before I jumped into something new. And I did. And I didn’t expect to fall in love again, but here I am.”

“I didn’t expect to fall in love again, but here I am”

Thalia beams when I mention her new beau, Australian rugby player and artist Angus Scott-Young, who plays for the Northampton Saints in the UK.

The couple’s romance has been a whirlwind since they first met back in May, and their second date was a last minute holiday to Portugal – which really says it all.

Thalia tells me that they matched on a dating app while she was over in London earlier this year with her best friend, singer Erica Cody, who she lives with in Dublin.

“We actually didn’t speak for a while,” she confessed. “Then he was over in Dublin, he had a game, he was playing Leinster in Croke Park, and he messaged me. This is a few months later and I was like ‘where the hell did this come from?’

“So we met that evening because I was working at the Collins Club, and then we ended up being in the same place just organically. And we just got on, we’re just very similar people and we just laughed.”

“And then our lives went on, he went back home, and I was actually filming, I was part of a movie, and I was really busy with that. I had work at the Collins Club, I was in the production phase of my jewellery collection, and I was just up the walls with work, and he was in the Championships over in England. We spoke very sporadically here and there.  

“Then they won the Championship, and I saw that and I congratulated him, and it was all good. Then summer for me, modelling-wise, dies down and gets quite quiet. I had all these things happening, but my schedule was relatively clear, and he was away at the time.

“And we just started messaging again, and he was like ‘I’d love to see you, because I’ve got a few weeks off’, and I was like ‘yeah’. Because we got on so well. And the messages that we had exchanged, albeit short and sweet, were very similar. You know, he’s an artist, he studied philosophy in Cambridge.

“I didn’t even know from his profile that he played rugby. Not that I avoid rugby players, by any stretch. But I think there’s always been a stigma about models and rugby players, especially in Ireland. I was more intrigued by that side of him, and when we spoke he spoke so eloquently and we had very similar interests.”

The pair thought about visiting each other in Dublin or Northampton, but then Thalia had a better idea.

“I was planning on going on a little solo trip anyway because I just wanted to get away into the sun for a bit. I’d been, like I said, very busy. So I went to Portugal for a few days on my own, and he flew over and we got an Airbnb together. So our second date was a holiday,” she told me with a laugh.

“Yeah I know it was kind of mental. I remember I got to the Airbnb first and I was just sitting on the balcony like ‘What if he’s a murderer?’ I remember texting Erica and just being like ‘I’m going to put my location on’.

“I had such good faith in him, I didn’t actually have any fear of him being a murderer, that was more of a joke. It was more like I didn’t know how we’d get on. Like we’d met once, very briefly. But anyway, we got on like a house and fire, and it was just four days of heaven.”

While Thalia gushed about her new beau, she acknowledged the fact that they’re both from opposite sides of the world, and there’s a chance he may have to move back to Australia in the future, depending on work.

“I mean, obviously, we don’t live in the same country and he’s from a different hemisphere, so there will be hurdles we have to face going forward,” she admitted.

“For now, we’re just seeing how it goes. But we had dinner with my dad the other night, and my dad was like ‘I’ve never seen you so happy’. And I really am, I really am. And he’s an amazing guy, and I feel very, very lucky.

“I mean, it’s only been a month, so I should shut the f**k up… But yeah, I’m just very comfortable. It just feels very right. It all just seems very serendipitous.”

“It all just seems very serendipitous”

I asked how they’re dealing with the long distance, and Thalia joked that she keeps finding herself in these positions.

“Do you know what, the great thing about him is he’s so busy. He’s working, he’s in preseason. I’m ridiculously busy at work. So both of us have hectic schedules, but I’m back and forth from London every two weeks getting my tattoo removal. I try and schedule it that I go over the weekend before, spend a few days with him. He works most days of the week. So right now, it’s just working that we just have this schedule,” she said.

“He came over last week, he got to see Kerry and meet some of my friends and my family. We both have an agreement that it takes two people to make a relationship work, and if things don’t start to work, we’ll talk about. But for now, it’s working perfectly fine.

“And I mean, FaceTime, WhatsApp, all of these things make life so much easier now. We talk nonstop all the time when we can. And it hasn’t felt hard, it should feel harder than it is. It’s all been very easy.”

Thalia “hard launched” their relationship on Instagram in July, which was followed by a flurry of articles in the Irish press about her new “mystery man”.

While this kind of attention would scare some men off, Angus wasn’t fazed by it at all.

“I discussed it with him beforehand, I think you have to,” she said. “Also I’ve been quite public with my relationships in the past, and it does come back to bite you. It can come back to bite you, and I said that to him. I was like ‘look, we can go two ways about this’.

“I’ve been quite public with my relationships in the past, and it does come back to bite you”

“But I’ve also always been a very honest person, and that’s something I want to kind of keep and nurture because I think it stands to who I am. And we had a conversation, and he’s a very honest guy, and he was like ‘it doesn’t scare me, it doesn’t faze me’. He was like ‘I’m very happy to be your boyfriend, and I’m very honoured to be with you, I love you and I don’t want to have to hide anything away from anyone’.

“But he was also like other people’s opinions don’t matter to me, which is such a nice thing. So he has a really good mindset about it. Because it can be quite daunting, but he’s also been in the public eye himself with his career.”

“Again, whatever happens in the future, happens in the future. But this is my phase in my life at the minute, and I’m very happy and I would find it difficult to hide that from the wonderful people who have supported me all these years,” she continued.

“Thankfully people have been so wonderful, and especially people who know me. You know you can see in their messages they’re just like ‘This is the loveliest thing’. Because I guess I probably have been quite guarded since everything that happened in my last break up, and I was scared of letting that happen again. But everything in life is a risk, and this is a risk that’s worth taking for sure.”

“Everything in life is a risk, and this is a risk that’s worth taking for sure”

I always love talking to Thalia, she is one of the most authentic people I’ve met in the industry – and I’m not just saying that.

While she’s known for her striking good looks, she is just as beautiful on the inside, and has always been an open book.

After praising her for being so honest about her struggles with mental health, Thalia said: “I’ve been very blessed to have interest from amazing people like yourself and other journalists on my career. I’ve been in the public eye since I was 14/15 years old, and I didn’t have training. Nobody told me what to do.”

“Just similar to modelling, you just get thrown in at the deep end. And I think it was always such a safe space here in Ireland, I mean there’s obviously been some negative feedback and stuff, but that comes with the territory. But it’s always felt like such a safe space, and I’ve always had such a wonderful relationship with the people I speak to in the journalistic industry. So it just felt like, I could lie and pretend everything’s okay, or I could be honest and be like ‘everyone goes through s**t’.

“And just because what you see online reflects something doesn’t necessarily mean it reflects the truth. And I know that myself included, and I’ve got nieces and nephews now, and I know growing up in this world can be very difficult because you’re manoeuvring a lot of false securities.

“You’re seeing people living their best lives, and you’re seeing the glossy, edited version of people’s lives, and it can be very difficult to see that and be going through something and wondering ‘why is it me? Why am I the one that’s struggling?’

“I think for me, it was like ‘why lie?’ I just think I’ve always respected honesty so much in everyone, regardless of who they are. I think for me, it just made sense, really. It wasn’t a conscious decision. And it was never done for attention, that’s something that people have said before, like ‘oh, you just want to be relatable’. And I’m like, what?”

“Everyone is relatable if you get to know them. Every person you walk past is going through something. I think you’re always two degrees away or a degree away from having some sort of similarity with someone else. No matter what you do for a living or who you are, there’s always going to be something that someone struggles with.

“I think it’s amazing being able to watch people go through journeys like Georgie Crawford. You got to watch her go through all the things she’s been through. I respect it in other people, and I want people to respect me. I think you can only garner respect through honesty and being yourself.”

“No matter what you do for a living or who you are, there’s always going to be something that someone struggles with”

A lot has changed since Thalia entered the public eye as a teenager, particularly the new age of social media where people can follow every aspect of your life online.

While it has become a great tool for enhancing your career, it can also attract negativity in the form of online trolling and harassment, which Thalia has experienced first hand.

As we started talking about the dangers of social media, Thalia said she believes people should have to provide ID to create a profile in order to prevent further harm being done via anonymous accounts.

“I can’t believe that that’s not a thing. Because I have been subject to some very, very hateful messages and very scary stuff,” she said. “I’ve been put in very scary situations with stalkers and other situations that I don’t speak about because it’s not… you know, things you just have to be careful around.

“And I do think if there was a threat in place to prevent them from doing this and from being able to speak negatively, it would make such a difference because we’ve seen what that can do to people. You know, people have ended their lives. People have done such awful things because of words, because words can hurt. Words and actions can really hurt. I think it’s a very, very scary world that we live in.”

“Words and actions can really hurt. I think it’s a very, very scary world that we live in”

“I often try and think if somebody’s capable of saying, doing those things, they obviously are in a very awfully dark place. And I think if you can turn that around in your mind and see it from their perspective, or at least, I don’t want to say pity them, but at least see it as quite a sad situation to be in, often I find it easier to stomach, maybe, depending on how bad the message is.

“I do think there needs to be a shift in something being done, because I always say mental health and physical health are so interlinked. If we could see mental health like we see a physical wound, there’d be more done about it. I just don’t understand how it hasn’t happened yet.

“I always say we need to put things in place to prevent people from doing things. And again, when it comes to online, I think people are like ‘ah yeah, but what’s the harm that can be done?’ I remember with what was going on with me, I went to the police about it, and I won’t go in-depth with it because it’s relatively new…

“Now there was no threats, thankfully, but I went to the police just as a preventative measure. And your man was just like ‘well he’s not done anything’. And I was there with physical evidence going ‘yes, I know, there hasn’t been person to person contact yet’, but there’s nothing put in place to prevent that happening. And it always feels like something has to happen, like something physically bad has to happen in order for there to be a change.

“Cyberbullying and online harassment has led to people killing themselves, has led to people harming themselves, moving country, moving school, having to make big, huge life changes and decisions. But because it hasn’t been the action of someone else directly, we haven’t correlated that link. But that is a huge link.

“Just because it’s not person to person, there should be a direct responsibility on the source, and we need to make that happen. It has to happen. How many more lives have to go before we realise that that one person who made that false account can go on to make how many other accounts.”

Despite the clear downfalls of social media, Thalia has often used her platform for good, and works with the DSPCA to promote the Adopt Don’t Shop message.

The model has two rescue dogs herself, lurchers Lennie and Charlie, and said it’s something she’s “very passionate about”.

“I always say my greatest achievement is my dogs, and I’m always so honoured whenever somebody messages me being like ‘oh I rescued that dog because you put them up’ or whatever it might be,” she said.

“Obviously with my own boys, they both had pretty bad abuse cases and to see them come from where they were to where they are now, and they’re so happy and healthy and comfortable and confident. It’s the beauty of dogs, and horses.

“Like a lot of animals, they see past trauma, and they recover so well, and they still trust. And I think that’s such an amazing lesson for people as well. You know, you can overcome so much, and I’ve overcome so much, seeing my dogs being able to do it. You know if they can do it, I can do it, kind of thing.

“Obviously, that sounds selfish, but I learn a lot from the dogs and working with the DSPCA and meeting a lot of their abuse cases and trauma cases and trying to to get them re-homed. It’s so difficult on your heart and your head, watching and seeing it, but also to be able to see the transformation is so worth it.”

After listening to Thalia speak so passionately about animal advocacy, I asked if she’d like to be known for more than just “being a model”.

Thalia replied: “Well, I always think I just like people to refer to me as who I am. My career and my choices are my career and my choices. Like who I am as a person is very separate to my career.

“People know me from modelling, so it makes sense that that would be my title. And I do love that as a title because I’ve done it for 14 years, so I feel like it’s accredited. And it is my job, like I would always say modelling is my job, and it’s what I know and have done for a long, long time. So it’s what I’m used to.

“But I think in any creative industry, it’s hard to have a single job, like you have to be multifaceted. And also for me to keep my brain functioning, I need to be doing lots of things at once, probably to my own detriment.

“But I love being busy and I love being creative, and sometimes my job doesn’t allow for that. And also it’s seasonal, so there’s a lot of time off. So it’s a tricky balance, but I do tend to bite off more than I can chew, but I enjoy it. I like being that person who’s always a little bit crazy and a little bit busy and has too much going on.

“I like being that person who’s always a little bit crazy and a little bit busy and has too much going on”

Thalia has added plenty of strings to her bow this year, including a creative director role at a glamorous new bar called The Collins Club in Dublin alongside her bestie Erica.

The pair took on the job as a six-month contract, which will be coming to an end soon.

“We basically helped with getting people in, running nights,” she explained. “The hours were always super flexible, which was the dream. We wanted to make sure that we both had our own respective careers that we could keep, because we’re obviously too busy women as it is, and this was just a nice thing to do on the side and also brought us together creatively, which was nice.

“So we did the soundtrack, we got our DJs in, we did our events. It was just bringing fun back to Dublin again. And that’s kind of what we hoped to do, and my God did we have fun. And the team in there are so great, we met so many amazing people.

“Since coming back from New York, I told myself to say yes to more, and that was one of those things I said yes to. And I’ve lifelong memories as a result of that, and it’s like another string to my bow. I just love adding to the resumé.”

Thalia admitted working on something different outside of modelling was “like a brain massage”.

“Things can get repetitive and they can get a bit stale… and I always said, I don’t like being comfortable. And once I’m comfortable, I need to do something because I don’t want to fall into that space of just, I guess, settling,” she explained.

“I like to keep myself on top of things and keep myself on my own toes. So taking on new jobs and new environments and moving, doing all those things, it’s trying something new and it just keeps you energised.”

“I don’t like being comfortable…”

On the topic of trying new things, I brought up the fact that RTÉ are are looking for new 2FM presenters, and if she would consider throwing her hat in the ring.

After joking that she and Erica could be the “female version of The 2 Johnnies”, Thalia laughed and said: “I mean, it would be absolutely hilarious. We’d have to work on our profanities for sure!”

“Like I said, I’m trying not to say no to anything. So you never know. It could be an interesting choice. Yeah, maybe. It would be funny the two of us trying to actually stay on track for once in our lives. But you never know, you never know.”

Thalia took another step outside of the modelling world this year by designing her own jewellery collection with Betty & Biddy.

She wore various pieces from the collection throughout our shoot, and you can tell how proud she is of it.

Thalia explained: “I’ve travelled a lot with work, and I’ve been to so many amazing places, and I always collect jewellery. I just love jewellery so much. I was talking to you a bit on set about it, that like I’m a blank canvas, and my job is to show up on set as a blank canvas.

“So like when I go to castings, I have to wear a specific uniform to show my body and stuff like that. I can’t really wear makeup. My hair has to be natural. So jewellery and tattoos are basically my two ways of self-expression.

“All the places I’ve lived in, there’s a little ode to all of them in my jewellery collection. Obviously it’s one collection, but I want these to be a story for people to make themselves. So the charms are inter-linkable, you can change them up. You can basically make your own story with them. There’s delicate bits, there’s chunky bits, there’s unisex bits.

“I’m hoping there’s a piece for everyone that they can create their own narrative with my collection. And that’s what I think we did with Betty & Bitty. So I approached them with my agent, and they loved the idea. And yeah over the course of just under a year, we’ve created something that I’m super proud of, and I just love it. I just love seeing people wear it.”

Thalia said she was adamant that all the designs came from her brain, instead of just picking pieces from a catalogue.

“The locket is an exact replica of my late grandmother’s locket that my mum showed me two or three years ago and inside was a picture of my grandmother and my grandfather, and I wanted to pay homage to that,” she continued.

“The chill pill, I guess it is a little bit of an homage to my mental health struggles and wearing it with pride as a badge of honour as opposed to hiding away from it, as we spoke about earlier as well. The 20p coin, obviously it’s an old Irish money and I just loved it. I think it’s such an iconic piece of hardware. My dad used to pay me in 20p to do house chores. I still remember seeing it in my teeny tiny hand and it was so big. So I wanted to use that.

“The Matches, Light My Fire by The Doors is one of my favourite songs. Again, it’s intersex, anyone can wear this collection, and that’s why it’s mixed metal. So the silver and the gold match is like, you can have one to another.

Thalia now hopes to explore other avenues and said “design, creating things, sculpting, painting, they’ve always been very high on my list of priorities, and I want to see where that could take me. I’ve got a lot of mental ideas.”

I asked if she would consider moving into fashion and designing her own range, and she replied: “I mean, it’s definitely something I’d consider, but the jewellery was something that I thought it’d be a really nice way to start. But I have the bug now.

“Since creating this, I just loved the process so much. I’m really glad that I took the leap of faith with this collection because I knew jewellery was something I wanted to create and it was worth all of the tedious hours of figuring out production and all of the not so glamorous bits, to see where we are now is just a dream.”

“We’ve created something that I’m super proud of”

The last time I spoke to Thalia she told me that she wanted to “choose happiness” and put less pressure on herself in 2024.

While she’s been busier than ever with various projects, the 29-year-old believes she stuck to her word.

“I’ve very consciously taken time for myself, and taken self-care as an important thing. And I think the diagnosis, as much as it was a bit of a shock, it forced me to calm down. It forced me to slow down,” she said.

“It forced me to say no to certain things that I would have said yes to in the past just because I was like ‘well, that’s the done thing’. And happy is definitely something that I’ve learned to create for myself instead of trying to find it in an environment.”

“I think often people can get stuck in a rut of needing external things to make you happy. And I’m starting now and learning now to try and create it for myself in easy ways, not by buying things or doing things, just slowing down and taking time to be in nature, because that’s another thing that makes me happy, or painting, or spending time with loved ones.

“Yeah, I think I would say that I’ve honoured that, which is nice. I haven’t thought about that since we last spoke. But yeah, I would say now I’m far more capable than I was then, which I think is a big, big sign.”

Thalia is just a few months away from turning 30 next February – a big milestone often accompanied by an existential crisis.

While many would panic at the thoughts of entering a new decade of your life, Thalia is excited to see what her 30s bring.

“You know what, my 20s were so f**king hectic. I’ve moved so many times, I’ve lived so many lives.  Success, in every aspect of the word, not just with my career, just in achieving what’s best for me, I’m still figuring that out. I think we all are,” she confessed.

“But yeah, like I said, saying yes to more experiences, trying not to do anything out of fear, doing everything out of excitement and joy and with genuine happiness and honouring what I want out of a situation. Saying no to the right thing, saying yes to the right things.

“I think my 30s, I’m hoping, will be an escalation of the last few months because I think the last few months have been really brilliant in a lot of ways. Obviously, we all have ups and downs, but it’s been a very positive few months, and I’d love to see my 30s mirror that and hopefully be even better.

“I just want a happy life. I want a peaceful life. And after releasing this jewellery line, I want to definitely explore my creative side more and see what else there is in there that I maybe have neglected because of my career.”

“It’s been a very positive few months, and I’d love to see my 30s mirror that…”

It’s no surprise Thalia is one of Ireland’s top models, and I was amazed by how she could slip into different poses so effortlessly during our shoot.

While she’s taking on more and more projects outside of modelling, Thalia insisted she has no plans to exit the catwalk.

“It’s a very confronting job, but I think it really teaches you a lot of lessons about yourself,” she said. “In a good way and a bad way, like f**k me, I know everything about my body to my own detriment. So there’s a lot of positives and negatives that come with it… and I’ve spoken about that a lot in my past. But I do still love it.

“It’s brought me so many opportunities, and I’ve met the most amazing people, and I’ve just done the most mental things. And I do see myself continuing that. And I’m back in London working again, I have an agency up North, and Europe is still calling.

“I still have a few agencies looking for me. So I’m not shutting that door, but I’m definitely opening more doors. If that makes sense.”

I asked Thalia if she still hopes to be modelling when she’s in her 40s, and she admitted: “I don’t know.”

“I used to always have a five-year plan. I used to always be so adamant and like ‘this has to be done, blah, blah, blah’. And now I’m just like, ah we’ll see what happens. Just roll with it.

“Because I do think sometimes if you put expectations on yourself, you’re putting so much pressure where you don’t need to put pressure on yourself. And I’ve done that so much in my 20s that I’m like where did it get me, only full of anxiety over the fact that I haven’t achieved those goals. Now I’m just like, see what happens, just live in the moment more, and just be grateful.”

After 14 years of life in the public eye, Thalia is proof that being kind to people will get you far.

With a good head on her shoulders and a penchant for being busy, I have a feeling there is a lot more to come from Thalia – and I can’t wait to see what she does next.

CREDITS

Creative Director: Alexandra Ryan

Photographer: Claire Boshell

Stylist: Megan Fox

Hair & Makeup: Jordan Reddy

Words: Kendra Becker

OUTFIT DETAILS

LOOK ONE (COVER SHOT)

Red Dress, Kika Vargas at @ Brown Thomas €600

Jewellery, Thalia x Betty and Biddy

 

LOOK TWO

Leather jacket, Anine Bing @ Brown Thomas, €1,300

Black dress, Bec & Bridge @ Brown Thomas, €294

Shoes, Celine @ Brown Thomas, €790

 

LOOK THREE

Check Suit, Loot, €110

 

LOOK FOUR

Black oversized blazer, Acne @ Brown Thomas, €820

Jeans, Acne @ Brown Thomas, €350

 

LOOK FIVE

Red fringe jumper, River Island, €70

Jewellery throughout Thalia x Betty and Biddy

 

LOOK SIX

Cardigan, Loot, €68

Leather shorts, Anine Bing @ Brown Thomas, €300

Shoes, Dior @ Brown Thomas, €1090