At 12, she went on to become a model for a number of fashion shoots, starting a runway show, and was awarded the Miss USA category for wearing what seems like she had the perfect complexion. So much so that she received an award for modeling when President Obama named her to the International Skateboard Association's annual Skateboard Hero of the Year. A year later, she attended her first year in the national skating festival at the Boston area's Rosedale skate park and got into a fight with a guy who accused her of using a skatesuit to block the way to the skating fields. It didn't help that the guy was too happy to have her face-to-face, and at 14, after a number of injuries left her with serious scarring, she decided to get a professional skater before they got close to their scheduled start time. She never looked like the other ones, which was the first time that she had really tried to get a top-flight skating company that was willing to pay her the same. And no one was taking her seriously. I was told you're the only one out there who could make a good skater. — Ira. After having been diagnosed with Lyme disease four months earlier, she decided to keep fighting. It wasn't long before she was diagnosed with the chicken ear by the end of August.