Sophie Ward

Words: Dani Hanrahan

Sophie Ward made a name for herself as one of Australia’s most celebrated models (and yes, sister to Gemma Ward) but she’s left that world behind. Now based in New York, Sophie exchanged her heels for a new journey, one with a pad, a pen and a curious longing to explore.

The Perth born model-turned-writer is a mix of beauty and brains, at once both introspective and open. After being discovered in the crowd at the Search for a Supermodel auditions, Sophie was propelled into a world where people wanted to know you, but not get to know you.  Seeing her younger sister (Gemma) have to deal with the onslaught of sudden fame, Sophie decided the fashion world wasn’t for her. But it did show her “…some really beautiful parts of myself and some really ugly parts too.”

With her big blue eyes, alabaster complexion and lithe limbs, Sophie looks magically otherworldly (thanks mum) and it’s to these other worlds that she hopes to transport people, with her writing as the vessel. “I’d like to create a feeling; a sensation that draws people into the realms just beyond reality. That is the world of magic, and I like living there.” Graduating from the University of Western Australia in 2006, Sophie majored in English and European Studies. During that time she studied Descartes and Kant’s theory of thought – philosophical pursuits that seem to breathe through her words. “Contemplation, melancholy, solitude and obsessing over trying to articulate particular emotions. It all comes from inside – there are really only peripheral influences from outside, and those are mainly voices like Miller’s or Rilke’s.” Her work first appeared in Mark magazine (the online haven of Grazia’s resident style king, Mark Vassallo) alongside Australian writing royalty, Tim Winton (“I saw a future open up that I hadn’t previously explored or been present to) and has since written for Australian Vogue, Follow and Silver magazine.

Having moved from Perth to America, Sophie divides her time between New York, Los Angeles, the French countryside, Sydney and Perth. Like the model she was and the journeyman she is now, Sophie has travelled extensively; from England to Portofino and Vanuatu to New Orleans (where she dined on Greek mythology and Brandy Sazerac’s) but Perth is where the heart is. When she returns home, Sophie lists; driving to the beach, lying outdoors in a hammock, picnicking at Sommerville (UWA grounds) and feasting on her mum’s cooking as the things she loves doing best.

Along with freelance writing and musings on her blog, Big Long Open Gash, she is the queen of her own castle, the Paper Castle, that is – a small, grassroots publishing company that Sophie founded. “I like the idea of a personal space in a digital realm that is intimate whilst also being universal.” It was a natural progression for the small-town girl whose big ideas she believed would be sacrificed in the commercial writing business. “I had the sense that the kind of writing or work I wanted to do now wouldn’t be accepted by the bigger publishers, and that I’d have to alter or change some element of my truest expression in order to work with them, and I didn’t want to make that sacrifice. My publisher gave me the space and the opportunity to be heard and supported before I even thought I was a writer, and so I want to give that opportunity to other people, too. It’s a gift.” Unlike international publishing houses, Sophie’s philosophy behind her Paper kingdom is a little closer to heart. “I’d like to create beautiful books that people treasure as friends, for as long as this lifetime permits.” And she’s starting with The Beginning of an Inexplicable Journey, her philological memoir about a personal human journey or in her words, “a dichotomy: about life and not life, me and not me. For me this book is the best I could do to channel a hugely expansive world into a small and succinct package.” Having come about whilst traveling on the lonely modeling circuit, Sophie hopes readers are inspired by her journey. “I’d like people to know that whatever they want to express can be expressed. There is room for everything in this world. Even when it feels excruciatingly tightly wound up, the experience of unraveling it and sharing it and creating something from nothing is quite an experience. You have to honour and treasure those emotions; they are so universal and so beautiful.” Sophie has an affinity with words, and it’s that love affair that has finally made the former model finally find the person she wants to be. Is she content with the woman she’s become? “I’m proud of the relationships in my life, and proud of the fact that I have had dreams and accomplished them (moving to New York, becoming a writer, creating Paper Castle Press from nothing) and yet as Da Vinci said on his death bed: ‘I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have.’ It will always be a process.” A process that begins with an inexplicable journey…