Over the seasons, we’ve met many Bachelor and Bachelorette contestants with robust modeling careers. There are the Instagram influencers, of course, as well as the general contractors with very successful side hustles and part-time Party City models. But we haven’t seen many cast members like 28-year-old Chelsea Vaughn, who has casually walked the runways of Paris Fashion Week, appeared in British Vogue, and worked as a full-time commercial and runway model since quitting her full-time job.
After getting a degree in fashion merchandising, Chelsea moved to New York on her own to become a signed model at the age of 22. She worked at several stores and brands as a Merchandise Assistant, Assistant Buyer, and Assistant Merchandiser, all while expanding her modeling portfolio and participating in New York Fashion Week. In 2018 she left her corporate job to focus on her modeling career, a decision that she calls “one of the most outrageous things” she’s ever done.
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“It was scary AF (and still is sometimes),” she wrote on Instagram. “But, I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Since then, Chelsea’s only grown more and more prominent in the modeling world: she’s now signed to MMG, a New York-based model and talent management agency that also lets her work in Los Angeles and Miami. And although she’s been walking runways in New York for years, she recently took her first-ever solo trip to walk for Oxford Fashion Studio and Kirsten Ley in last year’s Paris Fashion Week. Her commercial work also includes campaigns and advertisements for Calvin Klein, Century 21, and Maybelline.
To the dismay of everyone who would love to see more of her extremely fashionable outfits, Chelsea hasn’t gotten a lot of airtime yet. But that’s subject to change soon: in season promos, she’s seen both kissing lead Matt James and possibly crying. “Chelsea is the real deal,” Chris Harrison said before the season began. “Also one of the realest women, very sincere… there is depth there.”
He also joked that she isn’t exactly a typical Bachelor model; on her Instagram, you’ll find “none of the swipe-up codes,” he quipped. What you will find, though, are some behind-the-scenes shots from Fashion Week, selfies, and all the requisite Bachelor content. What you'll mostly find, however, is a seriously stacked modeling portfolio. This isn't a contestant likely to pivot to spon-con any time soon.