Image caption Kusum Shrestha, 18, drew attention online when she was pictured selling vegetables in Nepal

A few weeks ago, social media made an overnight star of blue-eyed Pakistani tea-seller Arshad Khan.

Now a pretty Nepali vegetable seller has shot to fame as the internet's new darling.

Kusum Shrestha, 18, was photographed carrying vegetables at a local market.

When the photographer posted the shots online, the hashtags #Tarkariwali and #Sabjiwali - "vegetable seller" - quickly started trending on social media as admirers praised her looks.

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Miss Shrestha comes from a farming family based in Bagling, Gorkha, some 55 miles (90km) west of the capital, Kathmandu.

She told BBC Nepali she is a student in the nearby district of Chitwan, and was helping her parents during college holidays when the snaps were taken.

Image copyright Twitter/Ravinepz Image caption Social media users quickly fell for the smiling young vegetable seller

Image copyright Javeria Ali Image caption Pakistani tea-seller Arshad Khan is launching a career as a model and actor after this picture of him went viral

In one picture, the teenager smiles as she carries crates of tomatoes over a bridge. In another, she is talking on a mobile phone while selling them at a market.

Photographer RupChandra Maharjan told a Nepalese blog, the Gundruk Post, that he photographed Miss Shrestha at the Fishling suspension bridge between Gorkha and Chitwan. He reportedly works for a company that organises rafting on the local Trishuli River.

'Cuteness and hard work'

The young woman told BBC Nepali she had found out about the pictures from a friend.

"First my friend asked me if I am the same girl whose photos became viral on Facebook. But I didn't know," Miss Shrestha said.

"Then she sent me the pictures and when I saw them, I found it was me. On that day, I came to sell the vegetables to help my parents. When I was on my way to sell the vegetables, RupChandra (the photographer) took my picture - but at that point of time, I didn't know that I was being photographed."

Image copyright Twitter/ArifulIslamKhan Image caption One Twitter user suggested the social media stars would make a great match

Many observers on Twitter and Facebook commented on the teenager's work ethic, with one user, @SabyasachiPuhan, saying she combined "cuteness and hard work".

One fan even suggested the now-famous chai wala and Tarkari wali would make an ideal couple.

In an interview with BBC Nepali, Miss Shrestha said she was thrilled with her newfound fame. Asked if she would like to take up modelling like tea-seller Mr Khan if the offer comes, she beamed and said: "Yes, I will go."

Her father Narayan Shrestha, 43, told Nepalese news site myrepublica.com: "I hear that her photos have become popular on the internet. Who had imagined that she would get such publicity? My daughter has always been a shy girl; she is a girl of very few words."

'She wants to be a nurse'

Mr Shrestha said his daughter was studying management, although she really wants to train as a nurse.

"She is my only child. I should educate her to the extent possible," [sic] he said. "But I also have to consider my financial situation. I could not admit her into a nursing college though she wanted to study nursing."

He told reporters he thought the interest in his daughter showed that the public respects farmers and their hard work.

"This is what I feel. There is nothing else that I expect," he added.