The model Kim Daul was found dead in her apartment in Paris on Thursday last week, after what has now emerged was a long battle with loneliness and depression. 

Kim started modeling at the age of 13 and was picked as one of the top 10 models to watch by New York Magazine in 2009. She also won fashion model award at the 2009 Asia Model Festival Awards. 

While she was loved and praised by world class designers around the globe, behind the runway, she felt increasingly isolated. 

According to the cable channel FashionN, which made a special tribute program to Kim, hers was a lonely struggle in an intensely competitive world. In interviews with FashionN since 2008, Kim said, "I'm always overwhelmed by the tight show schedules. One day I had to run constantly for auditions from 7 a.m. until midnight on a rainy day. The pressure of the runway is quite difficult to deal with." 

In an interview on Olive Show, a talk show about fashion and style on the cable channel Olive, Kim also talked about misunderstandings that happened due to her not-so-fluent Korean because she went to elementary and middle school in Singapore, and the trouble she had at the beginning of her career because she was "different." "I was always the troublesome one. Nobody understood me. I was a loner at school," Kim reflected. 

But it is unlikely that Kim's confession will be aired. According to a FashionN spokesman, Kim's family wishes to bid farewell to her quietly, so the program might be cancelled.


Cr: englishnews@chosun.com