HAYDEN COOPER, PRESENTER: When she's not studying for university exams, Margaret Zhang might be found in the front row at the New York fashion week, alongside the most powerful personalities in the industry.

At the tender age of 22, the Sydney Uni student has become one of the most influential Australians on the global fashion scene. Her styling and photography have glamour brands such as Louis Vuitton vying for her expertise.

Remarkably, Zhang's success has grown from a blog she started to relieve boredom as a 16-year-old.

Reporter Nikki Tugwell caught up with her in Sydney.

MARGARET ZHANG, MODEL, STYLIST, PHOTOGRAPHER: Just in my final year of my law degree. I have one more subject to do in January and I'll be finished forever. (Laughs) I'll be a free woman. I won't know myself.

EMILY WEIGHT, HEAD OF FASHION, IMG: She really is an influencer of the global fashion industry. She's a photographer and a stylist, as well as being comfortable in front of the camera. And I think that's what makes brands really flock to her and have given her this amazing career at such a young age.

MARGARET ZHANG: I just started this website, kind of, you know, just after my 16th birthday, I think. And it was just a space for inspiration and, you know, for me to document what was keeping me going, with no intention of, you know, any commercial elements or making any money from it - or even really building an audience at the time. It was very much just for me as an online journal.

I was really lucky and, you know, suddenly had a lot of interest from local consumers who were interested in my inspiration and who I was and, you know, slowly incorporated some of my personal style as I started to develop that.

Since then it's kind of been quite exponential in growth. I think that was the point where I was like, "Oh, this is not what I expected. This was just kind of a 'me' project and now it's become something much bigger."

EMILY WEIGHT: When we were in New York Fashion Week, I was surprised and proud to see that in all of the big shows our Australian fashion influences, including Margaret Zhang, were seated front row at these bigger shows. And they were alongside all of the Anna Wintours and the Grace Coddingtons and all the usual people that you see front-row at the Global Fashion Week.

MARGARET ZHANG: I think I dress like a boy. (Laughs) My style is quite eclectic, I feel. I mean, there's always just that masculine/feminine edge. Like, if I'm wearing, you know, a blazer, maybe there's like some lace element to make it a little more feminine.

I'm not a girlie girl, that's for sure. (Laughs)

EMILY WEIGHT: Margaret's style is like no other. She very much looks to create architectural shapes with what she puts together and I think that she has an art about layering clothing that many people are inspired by.

I know I, for one, have often looked through her Instagram feed to try to get ideas on how exactly to layer pieces and jewellery and all of that.

MARGARET ZHANG: One brand might want me just for photography services. One brand might want me to just style something and use a different photographer. Someone might ask me just to consult and so I do all the strategy and back-end and then let them execute it.

I was dancing from a really early age, so I studied piano and ballet from when I was four. Those were the main ones. So music and performance arts were kind of the key starting points for me creatively.

My parents moved to Australia in the early 90s. I speak Mandarin. My parents won't speak to me in English. (Laughs)

My parents don't fully understand what it is that I do. (Laughs) I think my Dad still thinks that I have a shop. He tells people that I have a store and I think they're really disappointed when they come to my website and they can't buy anything.

(Footage of Margaret photographing model)

MARGARET ZHANG (To model): Put your hand right next to the mirror. Yeah.

MARGARET ZHANG: My parents are super hard-working. I get it from them to just be able to work constantly and push myself and be ambitious.

(To model) OK. And then keep that off your shoulder.

EMILY WEIGHT: Nothing good happens without hard work and, you know, the entire fashion industry is working 70, 80-hour weeks.

And there's Margaret Zhang who's not only sitting front row at every big designer's show and supporting the emerging designers, but then she's changing outfits for the street style photography. She's donning her camera to capture her own moments.

Then he comes back to, you know, our offices in behind the scenes and is checking on her essays and uploading her uni work. I mean, she has this incredible work ethic that's enabling her to do everything by just continually working. She never stops.

MARGARET ZHANG (To model): Chin up for me. And just relax that.

MARGARET ZHANG: Age is no inhibition to your dreams or your goals. Society tells you that as a young person you need to intern and you can't really do your own thing and you need to be in a degree.

It doesn't need to be that way. I think no better time than now to just start your own thing.

HAYDEN COOPER: Nikki Tugwell reporting.