Practicing her walk for the Boy Meets Girl show, first-time New York Fashion Week model Cassandra Bankson has a confident stride.
The pretty 5-foot-11 teenager seems so poised, it’s tough to believe she is making her debut on the runways.
Even tougher to believe: Until recently, Bankson, who suffers from severe cystic acne, was so ashamed of her looks, she stopped going to class to avoid the bullies.
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Nicknamed “The Virus,” she once had slices of pizza thrown at her in the high school cafeteria by kids taunting her with that hackneyed slur “Pizza Face.”
But the 19-year-old has certainly had the last laugh — she became an Internet sensation after posting a YouTube video showing how she transforms her pimple-ridden face with cosmetics.
Her step-by-step makeup guides have gotten almost 40 million hits, and she became an inspiration to thousands of young people who learned how she gets picture-perfect skin using primer, concealer and foundation.
Modeling scouts at an agency in her native San Francisco were so impressed, they signed her up. She has since posed for brands including Bebe, Range Rover and the red-carpet designer Shekhar Rahate. She also became an ambassador for the cosmetics company Hourglass.
Bankson’s latest assignment for Boy Meets Girl is one of her first ventures into runway work. If she gets talent-spotted, she is tempted to postpone college and make the move to New York.
“It feels like a dream to be here during Fashion Week,” says Bankson, who pays regular visits to a dermatologist and says her skin condition is about 70 percent improved since she first made the video. “I am a different person from who I used to be because I’ve got so much more confidence now.”
She landed the Fashion Week gig through the NY-based online agency Explore Modeling, which promotes diversity and is popular with designers wishing to showcase their clothing on “real women.”
The turnaround for Bankson has been spectacular.
“I used to sit back and let acne ruin my life,” she says, adding that she got her first pimple at age 9 and was diagnosed with cystic acne at 14. “But it got to the point where I needed to do something to get myself out of the rut.”
That something was recording the 10-minute YouTube video in her bedroom in November 2010. It begins with her taking off her perfect-looking makeup and zooms in on her irritable blemishes before showing the lengthy cover-up process.
At first, she was too afraid to post the film online and waited a month before uploading it. She plucked up the courage to read the viewers’ comments after a few months had gone by.
“I was used to getting stared at and picked on, and thought the comments would be hateful,” says Bankson. “But then I kept reminding myself that, if the video helped just one guy or girl with acne feel better about themselves, it was worth it.”
To her surprise, the reaction was overwhelmingly positive. She received thousands of supportive messages from kids and parents.“I broke down and cried,” she recalls. “It was a side of humanity I’d never seen before.”
Some people claimed she was making things worse by wearing too much makeup, but Bankson says she uses only oil-reducing and non-pore-clogging products, in consultation with her skin specialist.
She started experimenting with different brands of makeup to cover up her pimples, and was thrilled to discover that, if she used the correct techniques and products, her skin could look flawless.
“The solution has been doing a lot of research,” she insists. “My skin changes so often that a certain product or medication might work for a month or so, but then I have to try something different.”
Her research skills were improved by the amount of time she spent at home on her computer. A few months after the traumatic pizza-throwing incident, Bankson announced she was “done with school.” The authorities met with her counselor and parents, agreeing that she could take one-on-one study and tutoring.
“It was a weird time in my life,” says Bankson, currently a college sophomore. “But I found out a lot about myself.”
Meanwhile her new boyfriend, Sorab, whom she met at a modeling event, was supportive, telling her that he loved her with or without makeup. Her confidence soared.
“Sorab persuaded me to make the YouTube video to help other people and also myself, and I’m so grateful that I did,” adds Bankson. “If I hadn’t pushed myself out of my shell, I wouldn’t be here now.”
As for tomorrow’s Boy Meets Girl show at STYLE360 at the Metropolitan Pavilion in Chelsea, the size-4 teen is feeling relaxed. “C’mon. What’s the worst thing that could happen?” she says. “I fall?”
After everything she’s been through to get to the runway, this would be no big deal.
jridley@nypost.com