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The model and content creator opens up about dreaming big, switching off and finding balance.
Model Onella Muralidharan on the ‘Everyday Blues’ and Finding Balance
The model and content creator opens up about dreaming big, switching off and finding balance.
Welcome to The Wind Down, a monthly interview series on Bed Threads Journal. Here, we speak candidly to experts and thought-leaders across a range of disciplines on, well, winding down, and what self-care looks like, actually. For this instalment, we speak to model and content creator Onella Muralidharan.
T wo years ago, Onella Muralidharan was your typical uni student. While she studied Interior Design, she had a part-time job at Bunnings, had recently started pole dancing as a hobby, and loved spending weekends exploring nature.
But then, after some encouragement from her friends, Onella entered – and won – the BELLA Unsigned Model Search, and her life completely changed. “It’s been two years since the competition and I’ve been on a wild ride through this industry ever since,” she shared with Bed Threads Journal.
Now, Onella is one of Australia’s most in-demand models and content creators, booking world-class clients and rapidly growing her own social media following. She has appeared everywhere from the pages of Vogue, to the runways of Sydney and Melbourne Fashion Week, and the campaigns of iconic brands including Mecca and Bonds.
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But Onella is far more than just a pretty face. She’s also a role model for self-love and acceptance, encouraging us all to embrace our differences and celebrate ourselves for who we are. Onella was born with vitiligo, a skin condition which results in the loss of pigment in parts of the skin. And while she’s never considered this a struggle, her experience has given her a blueprint for how to accept and embrace the things that make you different.
We were delighted to sit down with Onella at the Mornington Peninsula home she shares with her partner, Ryan, and her four fur babies, to talk about dreaming big, switching off, and what’s in store for 2024.
“I often have to remind myself to think one step at a time, otherwise I get overwhelmed.”
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