Jet-setting international model Sabrina Sikora is more than just another pretty Georgia face. Sure, the Macon-born beauty clawed her way from the Sears Model Club all the way to an uber-successful modeling career, but she’s also built an empire at the tender age of 23.

Atlanta’s Elite Model Management refused to represent Sikora twice in the early days of her career, but the tenacious aspiring model was not easily detoured from her dream and applied to the Teen Magazine Maybelline Great Model Search. After winning a spot as a national finalist and armed with a new tear sheet, Elite accepted Sikora for representation when she was still only 14 years old.

“Elite turned me into a real model instead of the girl standing in the mall store window,” Sikora laughs, but it is her mother Laurie who Sikora truly credits with her career success.

“My mom always told me to treat modeling like a business,” Sikora says. “A lot of girls want to be a super model but don’t want to treat it like a priority, but I did.”

After trips to New York City and Milan, Sikora changed agencies to the now defunct L’Agence Models and Talent where she met agent and friend Jennifer Wallin who now heads up Click Models of Atlanta.

“Sabrina is beautiful and very willing to try anything, but she’s always business oriented,” Wallin says. “She’s a model model and knows everything about the business. The new girls really look up to her, and she makes the time to give of herself, which makes our job easier.”

In a tough business Sikora is known for her professionalism, timeliness and preparedness, which has helped her walk the runways for fashion powerhouses like Chanel and St. John, nab print campaigns in magazines from Harper’s Bazaar to Lucky and land advertising spots from David Yurman to Cointreau. She’s even appeared as a finalist on the NBC series Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model Search and on Victoria Secret’s televised tour.

But the most lucrative work for Sikora came in the niche market of parts modeling.

“My huge alien hands are apparently very marketable,” Sikora jokes. “I was very thankful for the parts work because I’m not a size zero high fashion runway girl that you normally see in New York City, but I was working several times a week.”

Using her success as a model, the former Miss Macon and second runner up in Miss Georgia USA also has been honing her skill in another area for the last five years.

“I was using my work as a model to fuel my work as a photographer,” Sikora says. “I love photography because it’s a fantasy world, and I like playing dress up. As long as I can hold a camera and see out of my right eye I’ll shoot.”

And it may take Sikora that long to work through the list of aspiring models waiting to shoot with her from Atlanta to NYC.

Unlike modeling, which was a goal from a young age, Sikora happened upon photography as a result of being approached by aspiring models looking for advice. It’s the same way Sikora wound up with her own modeling agency – Sabrina Sikora Productions.

“These models started coming out of the woodwork,” Sabrina recalls. “There’s something in the Georgia water that breeds beautiful people.”

Now representing more than 250 like-minded models and actors in the southeast, SSP also offers Sikora the chance to partner with her mother who books print and television jobs as the company’s vice president.

“My mom was a single parent raising me but she always supported me,” Sikora says. “She knew nothing about the industry but we learned it together. The first time I was in a magazine we both cried. It’s helped us both grow, and she found her love of marketing through my career.”

Sikora says her mother also helped her find a love community service, which has always gone hand-in-hand with Sikora’s career.

As a true testament to being beautiful on the inside and out, Sikora still finds time in her hectic schedule, including currently residing in Hong Kong, to produce the annual Red Dress Fashion Show benefiting the Medical Center of Georgia’s Heart Center and also volunteers her time to the Medical Center of Central Georgia’s Children’s Hospital Celebrity Classic Weekend.

She may be half a world away, but Sikora uses modern technology to keep abreast of her empire and keep in touch with her mom and business partner.

“I’ve had the most incredible time of my life watching Sabrina grow into a mature and capable adult,” Laurie says. “It’s a joy to watch her mentor young girls and see them both get so excited about the first booking.”

As for the younger Sikora?

“I’m only 23,” she says. “I’m not stopping anytime soon, so I hope there will be tons more things that take my breath away.”