A new Top Model Competition made its debut in Nuku'alofa on Tuesday, June 3 introducing 18 local girls and boys in the first round of an event that will determine finalists through a mobile telephone text messaging campaign.

The top model competition organised by Professional PR Director Monalisa Palu will consist of four more rounds.

"We love doing events that are fun and involve youth and I can see how much more confident these talented kids get with practice," said Monalisa.

The aspiring young models, from 13-30 years old, appeared at the Janfull International Dateline Hotel in colourful outfits of their choice and also modelling outfits chosen from Jessie's Store.

Each model has been given a text number, and each text message received counts as one vote. The more messages a model gets from the public, the better their chance of being in the finals and winning the cash prizes of $1,000 each for both the male and female category as well as winning a chance to travel to New Zealand.

The second round will be held at the Western side of Tongatapu next week followed by the Eastern side on June 18.

The competition will then travel to Vava'u on July 2 before the final night brings the 35 finalists to Nuku'alofa for the finale on July 11.