Photographer: Mike Monaghan, Photo assistant: Mandee Rae and Make up by: Katya Gudaeva.Photos taken in Seattle at Discovery Park

“Jake… are you serious right now?” she exclaims with honest, but flustered laughter.

The furry black bear of a dog cocks his head adorably to one side and raises his left ear in confusion. He doesn’t know that he’s just peed on an exquisite pair of felted Ralph Lauren royal blue ballet flats.

Unaware that she’s in the middle of a photo shoot and an interview, that she’s just returned from Seattle, that soon she’ll be off again to Los Angeles, Jake continues to wag his tail and look up at her with his unchanging, puppy-like eyes.

She looks around for a moment, unsure of what to do, and then heads for the river.

“That’s great,” the photographer exclaims, his camera clicking away as she dangles her legs over the edge of the banked wall. She jumps down and starts to wade in the shallow edges of Mirror Pond near the Drake Park footbridge, both to wash off the dog pee and also to give the photographer that perfect shot.

She’s just getting settled into this life — a life somewhere between fantasy and reality, between the glamour of Ralph Lauren flats and the duties of cleaning up dog pee — but Jourdan Miller isn’t just a budding new fashion model. She’s the current reigning winner of “America’s Next Top Model,” joining the ranks of models such as Nicole Linkletter and Saliesha Stowers.

But even more than that, she’s a local girl who grew up right here in Bend.

“My friends and I used to hang out in this park all the time,” said Miller, with a relaxed demeanor. “We’d walk around downtown after school and thought we were so cool,” she continued with a self mocking eye-roll.

And while it’s true that a teenaged Miller was hanging out in the park after her day finished at Mountain View High School, she was already pursuing her dream of becoming a fashion model.

“I’ve always wanted this,” said Miller. “I had subscriptions to Marie Claire and Vogue. I would rip out the pages and plaster them to my wall. … There was this intricate cutout collage.”

They inspired her — the fashion pages, the models — to pursue her dreams.

“It was really hard at that age,” she said. “I’d get stage fright and freeze up.”

At 13, she was already going to callbacks in Seattle. At 15 she was working in New York City, before trying her hand in LA.

“It was funny because at home I was being teased for being so tall and having a flat chest and a flat butt, but at castings people loved my height and bone structure.”

Still, even with the accolades she was receiving, the life of an LA model proved for be difficult to navigate for 16-year-old Miller.

“I couldn’t drive in LA, and it was really hard for me to get around to castings,” she said. “I was going to Mountain View off and on and doing some homeschooling, but I just decided to get my GED and come home.”

Miller began attending Central Oregon Community College and wanted to pursue a career as a school teacher or in journalism.

“I love literature. I love writing,” she exclaimed.

Then, because life happens, and no one is immune to its charms and struggles, Miller got married and then divorced at the age of 18.

“It was just not a good situation,” she said, “and I just needed to get out of it.”

While recovering from what she called the biggest mistake of her life, she worked at Victoria’s Secret in the Old Mill District and as a telemarketer at TRG Solutions.

“Being a telemarketer really prepared me for being a model,” said Miller with a laugh. “Both are basically people saying no to you all day.”

Then, just last year, despite her hesitation and self criticism, Miller decided to audition for “Top Model.”

“I was making every excuse not to,” she explained. “But I got home early from work, and my boyfriend convinced me to go, and so I grabbed an app and put on some high heels. … I had 20 minutes to get there, and it was icy and so I ran into a tree on the way there in my heels.”

She made it just before the audition closed. The casting directors told her it would likely be six weeks before she heard anything, but the whirlwind of her quick decision was soon overtaken with the reality of her stardom.

“I got a call from casting three days later,” Miller said, “and they told me they wanted to do a Skype interview with Tyra.”

But Tyra Banks, the affable host, creator, producer, and a supermodel in her own right, must have liked what she saw because just a few weeks later, Miller found herself in LA in the middle of physicals and psych evaluations.

“They want to make sure you’re healthy and can handle the high amounts of stress and chaos,” she offered.

The season, the show’s 20th, marked a milestone for the long running reality series because it was the first time the show, normally solely dedicated to finding new female model talent, would have both men and women competing together.

“Tyra really wanted a guy to win,” Miller said.

Banks even exclaimed during the finale episode, “I wanted a boy to win so bad.” But enthusiastically also admitted to Miller, “You’re amazing!”

“You killed it on that runway,” Banks continued during the season finale. “And when I was photographing you it was undeniable. You are strong. You are beautiful. You have a story that so many girls can relate to. … You have it.”

“It’s both humbling and strange to have your dreams come true,” said Miller. “It really was the fans who got me here, and I wanna help be a voice for them, for all those people who feel like they don’t have a voice, who maybe made bad decisions like I did or put themselves in a bad situation.”

Miller is just starting a fashion blog where she hopes to help her fans and aspiring models with makeup, fashion and photography tips.

“I just love being creative, and I wanna inspire other people to express themselves, too,” she said.

And being an inspiration is another goal she’s conquering in strides with 20,000 followers on Facebook, 41,000 followers on Twitter, and an astounding 158,000 followers on Instagram. Miller is becoming a force to be reckoned with.

“She spends a lot of time on her computer answering emails and connecting with fans,” said Miller’s new husband, Christopher Rzonca, lightheartedly.

Rzonca, a fourth generation Bendite, encouraged Miller to go to the audition from the beginning and was much of her support during casting and filming, and continues to stand behind her now as she transitions into the life of being a top model.

Christopher proposed with his grandmother’s antique ring, and the couple was married in July.

From their first adventures together, when Rzonca took Miller into the woods and taught her how to shoot, he was hooked.

“I love going to the woods. There’s a lot of sublimity and silence you find out there,” he said. “And when I took Jourdan out there with me, she would dance in the rain. … That’s when I knew.”

“It’s so special to get to live here,” added Miller, who is hoping to be based out of Seattle and LA in the near future so she can be closer to home. “It’s amazing to get to see how big the world is, but I just love coming back. … It’s just little Bend. It’s cozy. It’s just so friendly, you know? And I know I’m being selfish, but I hope it stays that way.

“I love floating the river in the summer,” she continued. “I love going to Goodies downtown and getting the marionberry ice cream or a ‘Sunriver Sipper.’ When I’m here, I just like to relax. I could spend hours on the outdoor patios at Parilla or Longboard Louie’s enjoying the sunshine.”

After she won the title of “America’s Next Top Model,” she had to keep her win a secret. She couldn’t tell anyone for months until the show finished airing.

“I just laid low, watched a lot of Netflix, played with the Xbox, took care of my three dogs and my cat,” including Jake, of course.

But there was a moment during her flight back to Redmond — after she won, after she filmed the show, but before the world knew who she was.

“I was just looking down as we were landing, and I was so grateful for everything that was happening. I feel it every time I come back, and as soon as I got off the plane, I kissed the ground because I was so thankful to be home.”