Meet Chase Carter, The Bahamian Goddess

Bahamian siren Chase Carter has her sights set on conquering talk shows and runways alike

- Thomas Freeman

Chase Carter, the 21-year-old model with pool-blue eyes, golden hair, and a baby face, muses, “I think it was all the wake surfing I did,” by way of explaining the hoarse voice she came home with from a trip to Sardinia for a UNICEF gala. We’re speaking by phone on a late summer afternoon. “And not showering after I got out of the ocean and keeping my swimsuit on all day—the stuff that your parents tell you to stay away from when you’re a kid and you don’t listen to them.”

Such are the common workplace hazards for the Bahamian beauty, who is now based in New York City but spends much of her year on white-sand beaches the world over. “It’s so funny. I don’t recall going to the beach until I moved to New York,” Carter says, realizing the irony in light of having grown up in the Bahamas. “I don’t think I was ever a beach girl, but I’ve turned into one.”

She has modeled for an impressive array of clients, including Victoria’s Secret Pink, Maybelline New York, Urban Outfitters, and Good American, Khloé Kardashian and Emma Grede’s size-inclusive denim and active wear brand. Still, her sunny beauty and athletic physique have proven particularly well suited for swimsuit editorials and campaigns.

Carter occasionally sniffles throughout our phone call, but signs of her lingering cold dissipate whenever she discusses the greatest ambition she has beyond modeling: becoming a television host. “I just love talking, and I love the non scripted part of TV,” she says in her usual ebullient manner. “My family business back home is actually radio and TV broadcasting, but now I’ve finally decided, Yep—that is what I want to do.”