Photo: Instagram / @nakedandloud

UPDATE: 2:30 p.m. 

West Kelowna’s Ashley Victoria is looking to be the next cover model for Jetset Magazine, but her journey to her elite fitness level hasn’t been an easy one.  

“I was raised to think that partying, drugs and alcohol were a way of life. That’s how my role models were when I was younger. So, when you have that modelled to you, when you hit 14-15 years old, or even 10, 11, 12, you have the impression that that is the right way to be,” she says. 

“It was a lot different for me when I was younger. We didn’t have a lot of intervention as we do now. I had asked for help when I was a young child and experiencing negative things, and I didn’t get the help that I needed.”

“It led me in a direction I should not have gone, I don’t think anybody should go. So, I would like to use this as a platform to let other people know ... that you don’t have to stay in your struggle." 

Her main goal for being the cover of Jetset Magazine?

“I’m hoping to use it as a platform to inspire other people to make positive changes in their lives,” she said.

Victoria used fitness as her way out of the struggles she endured. 

“(Youth) are so impressionable, they are so heavily influenced and alcohol is so accepted right now that it’s easier to go hide in a park and drink than it is to get a student membership at the gym.” 

“A lot of time their parents don’t come out of addiction, which is very unfortunate and the child is stuck in it but if a child can see there’s a chance they can make and the opportunity is there for them, I think they’d take it.”

She uses her social media platform as a way to promote mental health awareness.

“When I started at the gym, I really needed a new direction for my life. It wasn’t because I grew up in a gym – I failed P.E. in high school,” laughs Victoria. “I just read my report card, and it said I didn’t even bring proper gym wear.”

She wants to show her two young daughters they can do anything they put their mind to. 

“They don’t really know much about my history. They understand that their grandparents, my biological parents, aren’t around for certain reasons. But, they don’t know everything and I don’t want them to see that – I want them to see this part of me.”

“This fitness part of me, the active part, the part that wants to go out and inspire the community, the part that wants to help people and put my face on a cover for everybody to see.”

ORIGINAL: 11 a.m.

Miss Jetset is looking for its next cover model – and a Kelowna woman is in the running. 

Ashley Victoria has passed through to the top 20 and is currently third in her age group in the luxury travel magazine competition. There are only a few days until the top 15 is announced. 

Victoria says she would travel to Tahiti if she could go anywhere in the world.

Jetset bills itself as "the go-to resource for all things luxury."

"From world-famous celebrities to some of the most successful visionaries in history, being featured on the cover of Jetset Magazine is an honour that's typically only reserved the most powerful and influential people on the planet."

Celebrities such as Halle Berry, Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron, and Katy Perry have previously graced the cover. 

Miss Jetset has donated over $650,000 to The B+ Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps children and their families dealing with pediatric cancer. 

You can vote for Ashley with one free vote a day or by purchasing votes to help support the B+ Foundation.