After a holiday skiing with her family in Furano, Hokkaido, model and entrepreneur Georgina Wilson-Burnand talks about her family, her fitness journey, and how she’s not slowing down just yet.
Looking out at the expanse of powdery snow, Georgina Wilson-Burnand sees a postcard-worthy scene unfold in real life: her husband Arthur is skiing with their kids, Archie, Alfie, and Charlotte across the snowy hills of Furano Ski Resort. They chase each other up and down the slopes, laughing and having the time of their lives.
She recalls it so clearly, you can close your eyes and almost see the idyllic picture, too. It’s an image that captures three of the things most dear to Wilson-Burnand these past few years: her family, her health, and the unyielding pursuit of adventure. “This is our ritual,” she says. “Our yearly family trip that we treasure. This is the most special trip for us.”
For the past two decades, Wilson-Burnand has been an ever-evolving force in the Asian fashion and beauty industries. She first established herself as a top model in the Philippines, gracing the covers of fashion magazines such as Preview, MEGA, and Tatler Philippines. She then made a name as a TV host for music network Channel V and the third season of reality show Asia’s Next Top Model. Eventually she became a successful entrepreneur after co-founding eyewear brand Sunnies Studios in 2013. Some of these roles shifted and transformed when she became a mum, but to this day she continues to look for new heights to conquer.
One thing that doesn’t change is the holiday in Hokkaido that her family is guaranteed to make every year. They come for the addictive soft-serve ice cream and warm bowls of soup curry (Furanoya is a favourite), but mostly they come to ski. The 200-kilometre Hokkaido “powder belt” promises pristine snow and smooth runs for days.
It means a lot to Wilson-Burnand that her kids started learning how to ski this early on. “It’s so that they won’t have a hard time when they’re older. [Because] I’ve thankfully gotten better, but after like a decade of trying,” she jokes. “It’s just an enjoyable holiday all together. I think it’s something that we’ll do forever, hopefully.”
New Horizons
On this trip, she finds herself exhausted (or in her own words, “shattered”) and enjoying some down time at Shiyuki chalet in Furano. We caught her just a day after the Tokyo Marathon, which she finished alongside her cousin Isabelle Daza. This epic race draws runners from all over, including Harry Styles, who ran in the same edition. Perhaps adding “athlete” to the list of titles Wilson-Burnand has taken on wouldn’t be so farfetched now; she is in what she calls her “runner’s era”.
Wilson-Burnand entered the race at the urging of a friend who has a run club in Hong Kong. At first she thought it was crazy to think she could do it, but after seeing that supermodel Christy Turlington finished the marathon in 2018 she was inspired to take it on. “[Running] changed my life,” she says. “I was already on this wellness journey and running just gave me the discipline and belief in myself that I could do anything.”
Her fitness journey, she says, is really all about seeing the remarkable things our bodies are capable of achieving as we grow older. “I’m amazed to see how my body can change, especially after having three kids. I just never thought I’d be able to have a body that I liked at this age,” she admits. “I feel my strongest and my best now.” This connection to fitness led her and her team to launch the Sunnies Run in Manila last August, which drew more than 10,000 runners.
Family Ties
It took a great amount of discipline and hard work for Wilson-Burnand to get to where she is today — physically, mentally, and professionally. When it comes down to it, she has always been decisive about what she wants and the limits she wants to surpass. And with her tight-knit family as a strong support system, it’s no wonder she was able to achieve the feats she has set her sights on over the years.
She feels comfortable enough to share her work life with her kids, her sister, and the rest of her family. More than just a foundation to help lift her up, her relationships with them are a grounding force. The glitz and glamour of modelling life can be dizzying, especially since she started out young, but her family’s presence has helped her be clear about what is important to her.
She especially notes the guidance that her aunt Gloria Diaz, a Miss Universe title-holder and showbiz veteran, gave her. “Whenever we were getting too big for our boots or we felt like we were so cool, she would be very grounding for all of us.”
Before the modelling projects began to pour in, Wilson-Burnand thought she would grow up to be an investment banker. In order to convince her dad that modelling was also a suitable path to take, she had to prove that she could sustain herself through it first. If, after three years, he still didn’t think it was a good idea she would go back into maths and accounting, which she was always into anyway. This led her to approach modelling as a business — a mindset that has clearly kept her at the top of her game, even decades later.
When asked if those are the kinds of lessons she’ll be telling her kids about as they grow up, she spares no beat to respond. “Well, I think it’s something that you just show.” Between growing her business and training for marathons, she still emphasises the need to truly show up as a parent.
“If I just tell my son that, he’ll probably be like, ‘whatever,’” she says. “I really love the way my parents and my extended family brought me up and I’m trying to replicate it, but it is pretty hard. I think between my husband and myself, I hope we do a good job.”
Pushing Forward
In 2026, Wilson-Burnand will turn 40. It’s another milestone to look forward to, but it also opens up a new set of questions as to what it will bring to her life. “I don’t know how I want to talk about being 40 yet. Like, I don’t know yet what it means,” she says. “But everyone has told me the forties are the best decade because you’re so sure of yourself.”
Throughout every stage of her life, she believes she has always been an “enjoy the moment for what it is” kind of girl. She doesn’t worry too much about the future because she knows that she has always stayed true to herself somehow.
She says that running Sunnies Studios, now the top optical brand in the Philippines, fills her with a sense of Filipino pride. And the brand’s string of successes continues to propel her momentum forward. After launching Sunnies Face, Sunnies Café, and most recently, Sunnies Flask, one clear thing she’s excited about is the addition of a new brand to their growing stable of offerings. They’ll also be breaking into new markets as they plan to open their first store in Thailand in 2026. Back at home, several new Sunnies branches are also opening in the coming months.
Considering where she is now, it’s easy to trace the dots back and see why things worked. But when she was at each of the turning points, she remembers that the path wasn’t always clear or what she expected. “If you go with your gut feel and just do it to the best of your ability, then it somehow all works out when you look back,” she says. Spoken like a woman shaped by wisdom, worldliness and wanderlust.
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