A FORMER Dorchester schoolgirl who set up her own modelling school is to feature in a new television series.

Charlotte Skilling, from Sydling St Nicholas, quit her banking job four years ago to move to London and follow her dream of becoming a model.

After achieving success on the catwalk, she then decided she wanted to set up a school to help other aspiring models realise their dream.

In 2009 Charlotte teamed up with television presenter and model Debbie King to found the London School of Modelling.

The enterprise has proved a runaway success and is now to become the subject of an ITV2 documentary Models, Misfits and Mayhem, which will chart the daily dramas at the school as the students strive to reach their goal of becoming a top model.

Charlotte, 26, said: “The school has been going really well and the TV production company found out about it and made a pilot for the show and ITV2 have literally fallen in love with it because it’s so up their street.”

She added that Models, Misfits and Mayhem was an accurate title for the observational documentary as it reflected the everyday reality of the business.

Charlotte, who will appear in the show under her media name Charlotte Heaven, said: “When you watch it you think it should be made up because what happens is so crazy it doesn’t seem possible but it is real life.”

The London School of Modelling has brought through hundreds of models in its short existence and now regularly sees students handed top contracts.

Former St Osmunds Middle School and Thomas Hardye School pupil Charlotte said she could never have imagined how successful the school would become and still can’t believe how much her life has changed in recent years.

She said: “I never expected this was going to be my life, it’s absolutely crazy.

“I’m still just a normal girl from Dorset and it’s all so bizarre.

“All my dreams have come true, this is exactly what I came to London to do.”

Charlotte said she still enjoys regular trips back to Dorset catch up with her friends and family and even they are surprised at how far she has come.

She said: “I don’t think anyone really believes it as it’s so far fetched.

“I think people are going to get a shock when they actually see it on TV.”

The five-episode first series of Models, Misfits and Mayhem starts on ITV2 on October 11.

For more information about the London School of Modelling visit londonschoolofmodelling.com