During the week, Tori Robertson is just another student at Belle Place Elementary in New Iberia.

The 10-year-old likes to play softball and volleyball as well as dance.

Next month, she leaves that life for the bright lights of New York City as a junior fashion model in Times Square during New York Fashion 2023.

She has only modeled for a year, but caught the eye of a major entertainment agency.

SAVVI Kids is an entertainment company based out of Atlanta and founded by Tiara Marsh. They travels around the country and the world recruiting models and hosting shows.

Tori said she felt nervous for her first time modeling at Acadiana Fashion Week in Lafayette, but the experience came naturally to her.

“I was really nervous, but when I hit the runway, my nervous self just went away and I knew what to do,” Tori said.

According to her mom, Tori became involved with SAVVI Kids earlier this year when they staged a show in Baton Rouge. Tori auditioned for the show, and ended up a full-fledged SAVVI Kid.

As a younger girl, Tori’s family and friends fostered her fascination with modeling.

“(When) I think about modeling when I was little, my grandma’s best friend, Mrs. Stacy, we would walk right there in the hallway, and they’d say, ‘Introducing Tori,’ and I’d walk the runway,” Tori said.

Savvi featured Tori in their magazine in an issue about Louisiana. Next year, Tori will be featured on the cover of the SAVVI Kids magazine.

Tori and her family leave for New York on Tori’s first-ever flight on Sept. 8.

Both Shelbra Thompson, Tori’s grandmother, and Ashlyn Thompson, her mom, plan to accompany her. While she has an itinerary planned out in advance, her big goals for the trip are visiting Time Square, the Statue of Liberty, trying new pizza, and riding the subway.

Tori said she is learning about the Statue of Liberty in science class, so she can apply what she is learning in real life.

Tori takes after her mother, who performed as a Barbizon model in High School, Shelbra Thompson said. She went to California and was crowned Teen Louisiana.

Tori said she hopes to meet important people in the modeling world to serve as a positive influence and to guide her.

“I want to meet my new dreams,” Tori said.

Tori said she likes staying active, so, given the opportunity, she also pursues activities like dancing and sports, especially softball and volleyball. She played softball for Team Chaos.

Right now, she is learning to balance school, sports, dancing and modeling.

“It’s kind of hard to put it in her schedule. She has dancing and she has to practice her modeling and she has tutoring. She can’t skip on her academics,” Ashlyn Thompson said.

Eventually, Tori wants to pick up a sewing machine and shift her talents from performing to creating. She doesn’t just want to walk the runway, she wants to see others strutting her designs.

While raising money for her trip to New York, Tori received support from people across the community. While Shelbra Thompson helped Tori secure several sponsorships from local organizations, Tori raised money with a lemonade stand in the 100 degree heat.

Even the lemonade came from a local business, Moore’s II Soul Food Cafe on South Hopkins Street.

“To me it was worth it, because when I was outside, I thought we weren’t gonna make a lot of money because we were just selling regular lemonade,” Tori said. “But when I tasted it, I was like ‘oh my, it’s so good.’ “

The support didn’t stop there. To make her dreams come true, she had sponsorships from Our Kids Matter, Kady’s Kloset, B Shivers Realty, State Representative Marcus Bryant, Hampton Accounting, Dr. Tasha Benjamin, Who Cares Clothing, Ray J’s Barbershop, Diontae D-Spence Spencer and the Shane Youman League Talk Podcast.

As a little girl from a small town, Tori said she hopes her experience can inspire other kids to pursue their passions, even at a young age.

“I think it’s very amazing to see a little girl in a small town be a big timer and go to New York,” Tori said.