Summer Rayne Oakes

Click. She wears a windmill pin but little else. Click. She poses in a forest in a bright fair-trade gown. Click. She smiles covered in mud next to the caption, “we should worship the ground we walk on.”

With every click of a camera’s shutter, Summer Rayne Oakes sends a message about environmental issues. Using fashion as her catalyst, this 23-year-old “Eco-Model” is all about getting a larger audience to care about sustainability, climate change and going green. Oakes lends her face to mission-based causes, with the idea that modeling can be an excellent way to communicate important issues if approached with thought and values.

Oakes graduated from Cornell with degrees in Natural Resources and Entomology. She’s now translating her brains and beauty into a book series, “Hip Girl’s Guide to Green Living,” a fashion newsletter, S4, and her own think tank called SRO. With every cause-driven venture, she’s getting her message to, well, click with other young people.

Update: Watch the CNN.com Live Video interview

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