Models and Their Day Jobs Series: Meet Hanna Madelena – 303 Magazine

How’d you become an Aerospace engineer and what drew you to the field?

My love for Aerospace was born out of my love of Sci-Fi! In university, I knew I loved space, but I started as a physics major because I thought that’s what made the most sense.  I love for Astronomy, Physics Theory and Universal Principles, so I figured that would be my way to keep studying space forever.  After trying out some internships and working in applied physics laboratories and still feeling really detached from what made me excited about space, I did some soul searching and found that what really interested me when consuming Sci-Fi media was the human element of space exploration. I solidified my aerospace niche in working on human-scale habitat design and space architecture — the vehicles and bio-support systems that will sustain people in space for long amounts of time. 

What drew you to modeling? 

Cosplay actually did! I met someone through cosplay who modeled locally and they pointed me to an open call for a multi-designer show in November of 2023. Shortly after that, I participated in some awesome shows like DFW Spring 2024, Color of Fashion 2024, a really cool African creator’s cultural show called “Let Me Show You Different,” Meow Wolf’s Trashion Show (to name the really unique ones!).

As someone who dances predominantly in heels, I thought I could learn runway walking quickly and just showed up at the casting. Through that experience, I made a lot of other model and designer friends, through whom I would hear about more open calls or castings and I kept going until it became just a part of my life. At first, the allure of fashion and clothing and contributing to personal expression was what brought me to attend castings — now it’s the people who I’ve met such as the designers and photographers I get to support that are the source of my love for modeling. It also helps that in a full circle sort of way, modeling has introduced me to more people who like cosplay and cosplay photography!

Madelena shares that her days of modeling began before she could remember.

“I used to do child modeling. I don’t have strong memories of this now, but there are one or two early 2000’s Kids-R-Us/Toys-R-Us catalog ads of me out there.” 

I talked about it a few times but Ballroom dance is central to my life! Training for as long as I had before starting modeling was a huge reason for why I picked up runway walking as fast as I did — the coordination, the familiarity with heels, posture, knowing your angles, etc.

I think dance is an activity that stimulates me creatively and physically. My studio, Colorado Dancesport in Littleton, offers functional core and pilates classes outside of the ballroom lessons I have with my coaches which I really love. Not to mention that ballroom dance itself is an intense workout and has contributed a lot to my functional strength and flexibility.  These are usually the activities that get me out of the house and moving my body on days where work keeps me inside all day, which helps a lot with mental health and only makes me a better engineer. 

Graphic design and drawing are skills that benefit me over and over again as a design engineer. Video games are entertaining creatively but also teach me so much about effective UI design and narrative idea communication, 3D modeling for cosplay are obviously applicable skills in 3D CAD work.  Even activities like runway modeling are awesome on an emotional level, as it is an exercise in resilience and facing rejection for factors outside of my control. 

On a more personal and gendered level, activities that are seen as traditionally non-male, like baking or modeling, are also amazing to do proudly while working in a male dominated field. Getting to see industry engineers and scientists have diverse hobbies is huge for young students who are often discouraged from choosing a career in STEM due to not seeing a place for themselves within that community.