When Sirinya Winsiri was a child, she knew she looked peculiar; people told her so.

''I'd be walking down the street and people would basically point their fingers and yell, 'Farang! Farang!' '' she said. ''It was really blatant. They were laughing and pointing. It was very hard for a young kid to take.''

Farang is the Thai word for a Westerner, and Sirinya was the daughter of a Thai mother and an American father. She was the only blue-eyed child around.

Two decades later, at 23, she is famous and beautiful, but it is an ugly duckling story with a twist. The duckling still looks the way she always did; it is the idea of beauty that has changed.

As Cindy Burbridge, her American name, she is one of the leading models and television hosts in the country, the beauty chosen to represent Lux soap and Omega watches. Seven years ago she became the first blue-eyed Miss Thailand.