Dancing to Diana Ross in an East London pub, Hayward was scouted to model for photographer Miles Aldridge. When the shoot was published in Ponystep Magazine in 2012, she was then approached by Storm Management and started her career a model. Hayward has been recognised as one the first plus-size pioneers in the UK promoting body diversity in many high end fashion editorials by photographers such as Patrick Demarchelier, Dan Jackson, Matt Irwin, Rankin and Mark Lebon. Posing for publications such as VOGUE, GLAMOUR, Schon!, Numero alongside having her own I-D cover back in 2012.