Iowan makes it as a model

A southeast Iowa man has found himself living out a dream as a runway model in New York City. Twenty-three-year-old Lee Zumdome of Fort Madison got a degree in technology management at UNI and was working his ideal job, designing office chairs in Muscatine. A modeling agent saw him at a gas station and the rest happened very fast. He won a nationwide cover model contest through elle-dot-com and models-dot-com and was named one of the “hottest bodies” by Cosmopolitan magazine. Zumdome is home in Fort Madison for the holidays, but then jets off on January 4th to Milan, Italy, and London, England, for a series of fashion shows. He says the Big Apple life of a model is a big change for him. While female supermodels are notorious for only eating a lettuce leaf a day to survive, Zumdome says he hasn’t had to starve himself to stay in fine form. He read up on fitness and developed a plan to follow. The six-foot-one blonde says he keeps in shape by eating five small meals a day and by running five miles a day. Zumdome hopes to get into film acting eventually or, he jokes, he may just go back to designing office chairs. To see his pictoral resume, go to “portfolios.models.com/lzumdome/”.