SHE may have just won a top US reality TV show, but Oxford model Sophie Sumner is dreaming of a Christmas at home with her family and friends.

Former Headington School pupil Sophie Sumner, 22, has been taking part in America’s Next Top Model: British Invasion, which is being shown on Sky Living on Mondays.

The reality TV show has already been screened in the States.

Miss Sumner, who was runner up in Britain’s Next Top Model in 2009, beat 13 hopefuls from the UK and US.

She won a modelling contract and a fashion spread in Vogue Italia, became the face of the show’s perfume and secured a $100,000 cosmetics deal.

Miss Sumner said: “I could not believe I won. I did it for fun. Having been there before in Britain’s Next Top Model I knew that was the way it had to be because otherwise you freak out.

“I was not expecting to win, but it’s been fantastic.”

Miss Sumner said she did not immediately jump at the chance to appear in the show.

She explained: “I had to think about it because Britain’s Next Top Model was a pretty hard thing to do. You have the cameras on you all the time and it is full on.

“People think it is extremely glamorous and you get to travel but in reality you see everything through a car window, and jet lag is not an option.

“But then everyone said it was an amazing opportunity and I had to do it, so I thought ‘why not, I will give it a bash’.”

The show is presented by former supermodel Tyra Banks and judges include Kelly Osbourne, singer Estelle, British TV presenter Cat Deeley and Girls Aloud band member Nadine Coyle.

Miss Sumner was brought up in Oxford and her parents still live in Kidlington. After passing A-Levels in media, drama and English she won a place to study drama at Exeter University.

She said: “I got signed by a modelling agency when I was 15 and I did a few shoots, but I was so young and it was all so scary I decided it was not for me.

“But then my friends said I should have another go, so I applied for Britain’s Next Top Model.”

After coming second in the UK show, she was signed by top London agency Storm and has since fronted a campaign for Puma and worked on various commercials.

Miss Sumner, who worked in Oxford’s Kukui nightclub and Tootsies restaurant has moved to New York with her Maltese terrier/poodle cross Darcy and has been working in Singapore, Jamaica and the Philippines. She added: “America is into everything British at the moment, with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, so they love me even more. We are very ‘in’.

“So many people love Top Model, and when we were filming we were getting mobbed in shopping malls.”

But despite all the success she will be returning home to Oxford for Christmas: “Oxfordshire is where my heart is. I find it so nice and calming to come home, and to see my mum and dad and my friends.”