Wingham's Karmen Wells has won a national competition that has given her an invaluable insight into the media industry.
Karmen, a year nine student, and her classmate Claire Stephenson have won Dolly magazine’s Best Friends Challenge.
The contest pitted the girls against two other pairs of friends in a series of challenges at the Dolly headquarters in Sydney.
The tests covered beauty, music and fashion in an effort to see which pair of girls had the strongest friendship.
The results were all filmed for the Dolly website and readers were invited to vote for their favourites.
It was a community effort that helped to get the girls over the line.
Karmen and Claire encouraged their friends to vote through social networking sites like MySpace and Wingham was super supportive of their bid with locals lodging their support at Ashlea Road Boutique, Wingham Newsagency and the Chronicle office.
The girls were announced as the winners in the November issue of Dolly, their fourth appearance in the popular teen mag.
Karmen and Claire, both 15, took home a swag of goodies in recognition of their win including tickets, digital cameras, a holiday and a session with a singer-songwriter to produce their own song – $10,000 in prizes.
Karmen said the whole process was a thrill.
“It was exciting and different. Sydney has such a completely different atmosphere,” she said.
The girls were also able to see first hand the inner workings of a national magazine, something particularly interesting for Karmen because she is keen to pursue a career in journalism once she finishes school.
“It’s really fast-paced with people focused on doing their job,” Karmen said.
“I didn’t expect everyone to be so nice. They were easygoing and helpful, fun but professional.”
She was also surprised to find that Dolly is mostly run by young people, which meant she could relate to the staff members.
Karmen and Claire became best friends at St Clare’s High School.
Claire moved to Sydney after the two entered the competition and they were not together when they found out they had won.
“It’s hard to be apart,” Karmen said, “but we celebrated over (chat room site) MSN and the phone.”
Despite their physical distance, Karmen is sure they will remain close.
“We still talk every day. The distance won’t make a difference; plus we’ll be glued together over the holidays!”
Karmen’s mum Gayle Pryce said this is another major achievement for our country town, like James Johnston’s amazing performance on Australian Idol.
“It teaches kids that it doesn’t really matter where you come from,” she said.
You can check out Karmen and Claire’s videos and lots of behind-the-scenes fun online at the Dolly website (www.dolly.com.au/best friends).
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