Nicole Kent is to meet Hilary Duff, Duff Fan is going to meet her IDOL

By MONIQUE BEECH
Local News - Thursday, August 16, 2007 Updated @ 10:13:20 PM

Oh .. my ... God!

September is totally a huge month for 11-year-old Nicole Kent.

She turns a whole year older in 39 days.

Bigger still, she meets teen star and Disney darling Hilary Duff in 21 days.

This St. Catharines girl has been counting down to stardom since she was born, and meeting the squeaky clean singer/actress/teen idol on Sept. 6 may be the first step to becoming famous.

Nicole beat out more than 3,000 other ’tweens for the chance to meet Duff, and model the star’s clothing line: stuff by hilary duff.

She’ll join two other gushing girls — Anna Iliscupidez, 12, of Red Deer, Alta., and Emma Gallagher, 6, of Harvey, N.B. — in Toronto next month to meet the 19-year-old Duff, star of Lizzie McGuire and Cheaper by the Dozen. Plus, she’ll be taken there by limo and receive a $1,000 shopping spree.

All together girls: “No way!!”

And this born fashionista, who tests out her outfits on a dress form before sliding them on, is pretty low key about her upcoming brush with fame.


She’s already, you know, gone to acting camp and had meetings with local modelling firms.

She takes singing lessons.

Last year, she saw Duff in concert at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton and sat just five rows back.

Nicole wants more than to meet Duff. She wants to be the next Duff.

Hello, Duff was just 11 years old when she scored her first major movie role in the 1998 film Casper Meets Wendy.

“I just really want to be in the spotlight,” said Nicole, who’s going into Grade 7 at St. Ann School in Port Dalhousie.

“I want to be famous, like, I really like Dakota Fanning. I really like her. I watch TV and I always say, ‘I wish I could be them.’ ”

Sure, she’s excited about meeting Duff.

She knows the words to nearly every Duff song. There are four albums, with the most recent called Dignity.

She’s watched her movies.

“She’s, like, my favourite actress,” Nicole said.

“My favourite singer. I just want to be like her. I want to still be myself, yet be like her,” the sweet, pale blond beauty said with a giggle.

Mom Alyson said she and her husband, Tom, could tell early on that their youngest yearned for the limelight.

As soon as she could walk, Nicole was putting outfits together and showing them off.

“I would probably go to all lengths for her to do it because she never lets up on it, right?” Alyson said.

“It’s been really almost 10 years of wanting to be in the limelight.”

Older sister Sarah, 13, is still stunned Nicole won the Hilary Duff model search.

To win it, Nicole submitted pictures and a 50-word essay, which were judged by Duff and executives from Ford Models and Zellers, where the stuff by hilary duff clothing line and home line are sold.

“I didn’t expect Nikki to win,” said Sarah, a Grade 9 student at St. Francis Secondary School.

“There were so many people and she won.”

Eldest sister Samantha, 17, said she’s pretty envious. She was too old to apply.

“I wish it was me,” Samantha said wistfully.

“I am a Duff fan. I’ve liked her ever since she first came out and I was just a kid.”

Nicole is still working out what she’ll say to Duff at their big meeting. She’s also trying to decide if this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity signals the start of her teenage career in acting/modelling/singing — just like her icon.

“I really want to stay with my friends at school,” Nicole said thoughtfully.

“Maybe in, like, college I’d go to Toronto or somewhere or New York, and get famous. That’s when things will happen.”

Nicole’s photos will be featured in Zellers flyers, and at hilaryduff.com and zellers.com.

Duff’s Canadian tour kicked off July 28 in Winnipeg and ends in Sault Ste. Marie on Sept. 11.

Courtesy: Osprey Media