A FORMER Miss South Coast has hit on a bright method of turning junk mail into hard cash.

Hampshire businesswoman and former beauty queen Amie Cooper is celebrating six months of success with her text message alert offshoot from her online model directory Modelhub.

Called Modelhub Wannabe, the service allows aspiring models to sign up for mobile phone alerts of auditions, TV shoots and industry opportunities.

They get three messages a week at a cost of £1.50 each and hundreds have put their names down for a head start in their bid for celebrity.

"This is part of trend in society," said Fair Oak-based Amie, a mother of two. "There are thousands of people who want to get into glitz and glamour. I'm tapping into a desire to get famous."

The information is sent to Amie because of her business and her previous modelling work and used to be binned before she had a moment of inspiration.

"I had piles and piles of modelling competition entries staring at me. I thought of all these people filling out all these forms, desperate to get into the industry, and I thought there has to be money in that. Then I saw an advert for Fame by Phone - audition notices for actors and it just went click."

For more information visit www.modelhubwannabe.co.uk