If not for an acting school come-on, Keke Lindgard might not be having her moment as one of the models set to hit the runway during the annual Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Paris on Dec. 5.

The Hawaii-born-and-raised model was just a girly 14, riding a Kahuku school bus, when she heard a radio ad seeking young actors for TV shows like Disney’s “Hannah Montana.” She jotted down the phone number, and when she appeared at a cating event to sign up, they told her modeling would be a better choice.

Lindgard turned 15 by the time she was sent to a modeling competition in Los Angeles, and her life became a whirlwind that is still continuing seven years later.

“I get chicken skin when I think about it,” she said while in town this month for Honolulu Fashion Week. “What if I missed the bus that day? What if I never wrote that number down?”

In Los Angeles, Lindgard was signed to Wilhelmina New York by Roman Young, a casting agent who grew up in Hawaii. Now dividing his time between New York and Miami, he recently joined Nomad Management, whose brand director is supermodel Coco Rocha, another Young discovery.

Aside from Lindgard’s appearance, Young said that what stood out was her walk.

“She walked like a model from Paris. It was the carriage of her walk and confidence when she came out. I wondered how this young girl from Hawaii learned how to walk like such a professional,” he said.

Lindgard, now 22, said she simply watched YouTube videos and goofed off by prancing around in front of her family at the dinner table.

Her runway resume grew considerably in 2009, her first year in the biz. She was whisked to New York Fashion Week and Europe, walking in 53 shows that year, including those of Dolce & Gabbana, Lanvin, Prada and Valentino, in Milan and Paris.

“It was exciting at first, but then I was like, OK, I want to go home now. I just wanted to be normal,” Lindgard said. “At the same time I didn’t want to give up what I was doing, traveling and doing all this crazy stuff.”

At first she tried to keep up with her schoolwork at Kahuku High School. “I don’t think any of my classmates knew what I was doing. I was such a dork in school. No one knew who I was. I loved science and math and was in science clubs,” she said.

With her modeling career in full bloom, Lindgard signed up for online schooling and was proud to earn her Kahuku diploma. She’s continuing to take college classes online and also takes flying lessons to become a pilot. “Modeling is awesome but it can be superficial. I never forget it’s just a job. I try not to make it my life,” she said.

Among her countless runways, photo sessions and ad campaigns, Lindgard recalled a standout assignment for an Asian fashion magazine that required spending five days on a sailboat in the Bahamas.

“Living in New York, I never get to have five days to myself, so it was like a retreat. It was so amazing to be a part of earth and ocean and sea life, because it’s so untouched there.”

Lindgard said she also had fun acting the role of a criminal in couture during a Paris shoot with Ellen Von Unwerth for Numero China that had her soaking in a bathtub filled with fake rubies.

With the Victoria’s Secret show around the corner, Lindgard is preparing by dieting and exercising. “Nothing crazy. I don’t like fad diets. I just believe in eating natural, whole foods,” she said. “If so many people are going to see me in my bra and underwear, I’d better be looking good.”

On some level, she’s still a little disappointed that she never appeared on “Hannah Montana,” but she’s grateful for the detour that gave her a jump start in life.

“Sometimes I visit my friends on college campuses and think, ‘If not for modeling, I wonder if I would be doing this now.’”