Monika Schnarre’s next chapter.
by Laurie Stephens & Roger Klein
photography by Roger Klein & Anya Shor &
Elizabeth Gulledge, North On Birch Photography
She moved to Collingwood with a broken heart and found happiness here. It’s a fresh start and a world away from the bright lights of New York, Los Angeles, and Toronto. Regular hikes up the Escarpment with her dog, Piper, lunch with friends at a local restaurant, and skiing at Blue Mountain with her eight-year-old son, Bode. These are the simple pleasures in life for Monika Schnarre.
“I feel at home here, more than I have anywhere else,” she says. “I have a real connection to Collingwood, and I thought it was the perfect place to raise our son.”
If her name sounds familiar, it should.
At the age of 14, the Canadian model graced the cover of American Vogue and was the youngest ever to win the “Ford Models Supermodel of the World” contest during the height of the supermodel phenomenon, when models like Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington ruled the fashion world. A year later, she was featured in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
It’s hard to miss Schnarre when she walks into a room. She’s taller than most men, has big hair, a big smile, and a gregarious nature that’s disarming. She speaks candidly about her initiation to the international stage.
Already more than six feet tall in grade school, she was the subject of ridicule and bullying. “They called me things like ‘Jello lips’ and ‘horse teeth’,” Schnarre says. But the things that made her different would ultimately be the key to early success and her childhood critics would soon be silenced.
At the age of 14, the Canadian model graced the cover of American Vogue and was the youngest ever to win the “Ford Models Supermodel of the World” contest during the height of the supermodel phenomenon.
Early on, Schnarre had dreams of being an actor. And within three months of walking through the door at the Judy Welch Modelling Agency in Toronto she appeared in Vogue, modelling for Canadian Designer Alfred Sung. She begged her mother to allow her to enter the Ford contest in 1986.
But fame and fortune don’t always go hand-in-hand. After she won the contest, her mother wouldn’t allow her to sign a contract with Ford Models, which would have required her to live and work full-time in New York City while still only 14.
In hindsight, Schnarre says she would do the same if she had a daughter working in the modelling industry, recalling her own close encounters with some now-notorious, international sexual predators.
Instead, she went back to high school in Scarborough, travelling back and forth to New York. Schnarre was mature for her age and quickly learned to be self-reliant and street smart. By the time she was 16 she had earned enough to purchase her first house in Pickering. She continued modelling and acting, appearing in dozens of films and television shows.
At 33 she decided it was time to reinvent herself and went back to school, studying broadcast journalism at UCLA, which led to new opportunities as an entertainment correspondent for shows such as CTV’s etalk and Celebrity RSVP on Slice.
She continues to do the occasional acting and modelling gig, her latest as the new brand ambassador for Lemonwood, a Canadian lifestyle boutique that sources luxury goods from ethically-operated factories that empower women working in their trade. It has six locations, including one in Collingwood.
Collingwood is affording Schnarre an opportunity to reinvent herself once again. Now divorced, she is about to embark on a new career in real estate in the Southern Georgian Bay area.
“I think I’m on my sixth career,” says the 50-year-old Schnarre. “I’m not afraid to try new things and certainly not afraid to fail. Renewal is part of my life.”
Schnarre moved to Collingwood in 2017, when her son started junior kindergarten. She had been living in Muskoka, but found it too isolating in the winter. There wasn’t a lot of choice in schools for her son’s education, either. So, she and her former husband Storey Badger decided they would move to a place that still had a country atmosphere, but with more infrastructure—“like schools and the odd restaurant,” she laughs.
“But I’m proud of myself. Life is all about timing. I think I was given opportunities and you have to jump on those in life. You can’t just wait it out, because they are few and far between.”
She already had ties to Collingwood: her mother-in-law lived there, as had her mother’s brother, an avid skier before his untimely death at the age of 23. Given these connections, she says she feels that raising her son in Collingwood is a “full-circle sort of family moment.” She’s also close enough to Toronto for visits to see her mother and other members of her family.
As she prepares to begin a new career in real estate, the profession represents something deeper than renewal to Schnarre. It’s also an act of exerting some control over her own destiny. For her entire life she has relied on other people for a job, trying to convince them she was the one to hire.
“When you’re an actor, for example, everything is out of your control,” she says. “You can give the best audition of your entire life, but you don’t fit the look that they had in mind. And of course, it gets harder as you get older.
“With real estate, you have the ability, depending on how hard you work, to make all of your goals happen. There’s no limit. And you can work as much or as little as you want. I can be home with my son if I want, I can make my own hours. It really appealed to me.”
A career in real estate for a former supermodel is not as far-fetched as it would seem. Schnarre calls herself “handy”—a bit of an understatement for someone who, on her own, has designed and installed a new kitchen in her Collingwood home, built an outside bar, constructed a treehouse for her son, and crafted pieces of furniture, including tables and a bed.
Between acting jobs, she made her living renovating homes and then flipping them. She is also an ambassador for the Women Build campaign for Habitat for Humanity—a role she took on in 2008 to inspire women to feel comfortable and confident with tools.
Picture a statuesque former model in overalls and a toolbelt, and one would think you have the makings of a television series. “I’ve tried to pitch that show,” says Schnarre, “but reality TV is very difficult.”
Schnarre on the job at Habitat for Humanity construction site Scarborough (the Women Build campaign).
So instead, she is looking forward to being part of a profession that already has special meaning for her. She met her former husband because a real estate agent introduced them, and if she hadn’t met her husband, she points out, she wouldn’t have had her son.
As a single mom, she was also influenced in her career choice by the pandemic. At home with her son, abiding by public health restrictions, she pondered what she could do to take full control of her own livelihood. Real estate seemed the obvious choice.
“I’ve always had a real connection to real estate, and then I thought, why not help other people experience what I have—that excitement of finding the right place? You really can affect someone’s whole life by where they live.”
Reflecting back on the start of her modelling career, Schnarre says it now seems like a surreal experience.
“It does feel like it was another person, and certainly, it was another lifetime. But I’m proud of myself. Life is all about timing. I think I was given opportunities and you have to jump on those in life. You can’t just wait it out, because they are few and far between.”
Schnarre is happy here, and now more than ever values stability. She recalls the comfort she found in the home her mother had for 30 years, and she wants to provide the same for her son as he grows up.
That means enjoying the simple pleasures of Collingwood for the next ten years, at least.
“I do have dreams of having a second home in Tuscany,” she says.
“I think it’s important to have goals. But I see my roots here indefinitely.”
