You will notice that the sled dogs at left seem to be smiling. We don't blame them. The lady holding the reins is Monique St. Pierre, a 25-year-old German-born model who, for the time being, is the great good fortune of Denver, where she's in extreme professional demand. The poster for Lange skiing
...equipment at the top of this page is an example of her work. Kinda makes you want to crawl around the slopes a little with her, doesn't it? "I always feel free in front of the camera," Monique says, "because no matter what the job is, I make it mine." Once, trying out for a national soft drink ad, the successful model made her entrance into the audition room by simply extending her arm through the cracked door, holding a bottle of the product in her hand. Her head followed, grinning ear to ear, then the rest of her whizzed in like Loretta Young and she introduced herself. Needless to say, they called her back, "despite the fact that, according to my agent, I was almost 'too sexy,' which, in the modeling business, means I have breasts." Indeed she does, and many other assets as well. She speaks fluent German and some French, and she holds a degree as a psychiatric technician. And she's an outdoor person with enough savvy to stalk the wild asparagus. "I'm incredibly well informed about the outdoors. I can look at any track in this part of the country and tell you exactly what animal made it." (So watch your step, fella.) Every morning she gets up at six, eats breakfast, reads the paper, calls her agency and schedules her day. Then she goes out to swim, bicycle or jog five miles around a nearby lake. Part of Monique's appeal as a model is her obvious comfort with her body. She attributes her aura of healthy sexuality to her European upbringing. "Europeans are raised much more liberally as far as sex is concerned. For instance, in Europe, nude beaches are old hat. Here, they're still controversial." Monique was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, and when she was two and a half months old, moved with her parents to Munich, where she grew up. She graduated from high school in Munich at 17 and came to America to go to college and nursing school in Madison, Wisconsin. She moved from Madison to Boulder, Colorado, in 1973 and began her skyrocketing modeling career. She's serious about her independence. "My individuatlity is very important to me. I cannot stand to be dominated and I cannot stand being mediocre at what I'm doing." Right now, she's working on being the best model she can be, and she's studying to be the best actress she can be. "I've been studying acting here in Denver, and I love it. I've signed with Willhelmina in New York and I'll be moving there soon. I'm going to find the bet New York acting instuctor I can and devote myself to the art until I know I have the ability to take a major role in a play or a movie." One source of Monique's admirable confidence is hypnosis. "My life last year was moving more quickly than I could handle. I desperately wanted to relax. By coincidence, I met a hypnotherapist, who put me under, then suggested that I wake up feeling calm and refreshed. I stayed under for three hours, just loving the feeling. Then when he brought me out, I felt great. He hypnotized me out of a cold once; just made my fever vanish." We wondered if a strong-willed person like herself wasn't afraid to submit to hypnosis. "Not at all. You really won't do anything you don't want to do. As an experiment, the hypnotist suggested I meet him in his hotel room at a certain time. Of course, I didn't show up." On the other hand, he might be a better hypnotist than he suspects.
