Why I'm not going to follow in my mum Twiggy's footsteps

HER mother was dubbed the Face Of The Sixties - the supermodel of her time. But when you look at Carly Lawson you'd never guess she is the daughter of Twiggy.

And that's just the way she likes it.

Shy art student Carly, 20, has turned down lucrative offers to follow her mother into modelling, telling top agencies that she would rather be a cartoonist.

Twiggy, discovered at 15, was Carly's age when she retired. But talent scouts believe Carly could still launch a modelling career of her own.

Carly and her 49-year-old mother have ruled out the offers.

Carly said: "I just don't think I'd be able to be a model, not with my mum. There's no-one as beautiful as her."

Twiggy, now rehearsing for a stage play in New York, added: "We have had lots of offers for Carly to do modelling but it wouldn't be fair. There would always be comparisons."

Twiggy was ordinary 15-year-old Lesley Hornby when she was discovered by agent Justin de Villeneuve while working for a hairdresser.

Within five years she was a household name and quit modelling for a career on stage and screen.

Carly is an animation student at Edinburgh University and her ambition is to paint. She says she lacks her mother's confidence and would find the attention of a modelling career unbearable.

"There is no way I could do it," she said from her mother's home in London's Earls Court. "I want to be a painter so I don't think I will ever be a model.

"I don't think I could get up on the catwalk anyway. I haven't got the guts or the confidence." I've only just started wearing high heels and I have enough trouble coping with that."

Being the daughter of such a famous mother was never easy for Carly. She said: "People cling on to the idea that I am Twiggy's daughter.

"In some ways it's annoying because I really want to do things on my own merit.

"When I do there will always be those who say I have got where I have because of who I am."

Carly's father, American actor Michael Whitney, suffered a heart attack and died while taking her for a fifth birthday treat at a McDonalds in New York.

Twiggy recalled in her biography: "Apparently the staff were amazing and got Carly out of the way. But he died in the restaurant."

Carly spent many of her teenage years at boarding school in Dorset. She was adopted by Twiggy's husband, Leigh Lawson, 14 years ago.

Carly, her light brown hair pulled back from her face, is a London girl at heart - like her mother. "My boyfriend lives here so I come home to see him," she explained.

Carly is still unsure what she will do after university.

"It will probably be linked with fashion or art, but I don't want to say what," she said.

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