It’s not easy to strut in Mindy Meyer’s shoes — preferably Louboutins — these days.
“They’ll call me the Snooki senator. They’ll criticize the shape of my mouth. If that’s all they can come up with, it just shows they’re running out of things to criticize,” sniffs the conservative state Senate candidate. “People can be brutal and nasty, but I’m stronger than that. I still want this.”
The 22-year-old law student and lifelong Brooklynite from Flatbush has more than just political tongues wagging since she burst onto the scene last month vying to unseat longtime incumbent Kevin Parker for the 21st District in Brooklyn.
Her signature hot-pink blazer — complete with matching candy-colored iPhone case and fuchsia pedicure — and media gaffes have been grabbing headlines. Much like her role model, Elle Woods, the character Reese Witherspoon made famous for scaling Harvard Law’s ivory tower in “Legally Blonde” — she’s not always taken seriously.
“I figured if Elle Woods could take pink to the highest level of education at Harvard Law, then I could take it to the state Senate,” gushes Meyer, an Orthodox Jew, as she holds court high on the rooftop of Midtown’s Sanctuary Hotel in black leather Chanel ballet flats.
Declaring “I love pink,” she admits her passion for pastels is now detracting from her campaign.
“I want to divert the attention from pink to my politics,” says Meyer, who is putting herself through law school at Touro Law Center by working at a real-estate law firm. “This pink thing has gotten out of control. It was for the Web site, so young people would see how exciting politics can be,” she says of her blinged-out campaign site that went viral in July.
And with shades of ravishing red a high-fashion must for women going places this fall — even if that place might be Albany — Meyer is ready to embrace a more sophisticated power palette.
“Red is more of a classy look, I can see that,” concedes the self-styled “diva of the district,” who’s generally shied away from reds in the past.
“You can’t really have red lips with bronzer,” she laments, noting her predilection for spray tanning, jet-black gel eyeliner and nude lips.
Identifying less with the likes of style icons Michelle O, or even Jackie O — “They’re so old!” — Meyer finds sartorial solidarity in contemporaries like Kate Middleton and Blair Waldorf, the “Gossip Girl” character played by Leighton Meester.
“I love Kate’s style — she’s young and wears amazing clothes. She’s political — but fashionable. And Blair is such a feminist — she broke it off with Chuck!” Meyer cries.
As a kid, the Sephora addict had dreams of becoming a makeup artist — but now she’s considering a career in either entertainment or criminal law.
“One of the benefits to being a lawyer is that you get to look hot every day,” she gushes about the sophisticated looks of judicial cuties she encounters in court.
For Meyer, who insists politics was always part of the plan — she did decide she’d be a future NYC mayor when she was 11, after all — fate knocked a little early.
“I figured I’d wait to run until I was a little more established — at least until after law school.” It was her fellow law school classmate (now campaign manager) who had other ideas for Meyer when he zeroed in on her ability to wow the class in an impromptu Socratic-method monologue, which was filmed and uploaded to YouTube.
And a political career was born.
It’s all been a whirlwind for Meyer, who recently got caught in a Gov. Cuomo kerfuffle — she was quoted by a political Web site saying, “I’m not really familiar with him.” She says she was misquoted.
It hasn’t slowed her rising star. Meyer says she’s been offered countless reality shows from producers jockeying to hitch a ride to her political ticket.
Even what was supposed to be a relaxing jaunt to Miami Beach earlier this month for much-needed R&R felt like a political junket.
“As soon as I got to the pool at the Fontainebleau, some middle-aged guy starts pointing and screaming, ‘There’s the senator!’ ” she laughs.
She doesn’t have bodyguards yet, that is if you don’t count doting grandpa Manny Meyer, 80, a longtime captain at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights, who watches over the political princess as she models a $9,000 Michael Kors sequined stunner.
“When she has meetings in Albany, she’s going to come in that?” he jokes.
But Meyer likes what she sees.
“I can see myself wearing this to a state dinner,” she coos.
“My hair looks so presidential — now I look like I’m in politics!”
dlewak@nypost.com