My son is really good at being on trips with me. He understands what’s going on. He grew up with me modeling, so it’s quite normal for him to be on a shoot and in pictures because he sees me doing it.
The thrill of acting is making a character real. Modeling is the opposite of real. It’s being fake in front of the camera.
Modeling is a tough job, your co-workers are your rivals, it really puts a damper on your perspective of other girls.
My younger years of modeling were really just filled with fun trips. I was doing catalogues for Alexander’s and Bloomingdale’s.
Well, when I started modeling in the mid-’80s, the girls who did shows did shows, and the girls who did magazines did magazines. That’s what was understood.
When I started modeling, I was young and sort of a bit reckless – I wanted to make money and didn’t really care about anything else.
I’m doing modeling to stay alive. I don’t enjoy my work. I don’t find it creative. You don’t need brains, and there are no heavy qualifications. All it takes is not to be shy and to dare to make a fool of yourself. But I shouldn’t complain, because I am privileged enough to be overpaid.
Part of the beauty of Victoria’s Secret modeling is that they are called ‘Angels’ for a reason – because they’re aesthetics are supposed to be unobtainable. But so are mine. No one could ever be me. Look exactly as I do. Be exactly as I am.
A lot of people ask me what my mom has taught me about modeling. The truth is the things she teaches me go deeper than what pose to make or what my good side is.
Modeling is great because I don’t have lines to memorize. But I find acting much more challenging – which is a good thing!
I got into modeling first, then acting came along pretty soon, and I landed my first role in a Korean drama without education, without any acting experience whatsoever.
I express myself a lot on Tumblr, especially through my diary entries, but my Instagram is my modeling portfolio. I have my game face on at all times.
I’ve been modeling since 2012, when I was 18, so I am used to following a crazy schedule.
I had a hair colorist that I knew, so I went to her and had my hair colored, and fortunately, this helped me achieve a very successful modeling career. But, it’s very difficult to maintain red hair.
I went to the Professional Children’s School in New York, and I started modeling because I could do that until I actually figured out what I wanted to do, and it gave me the opportunity to travel.
Basically I was really modeling for fun, but it wasn’t ever something that I wanted to do to begin with.
There’s a reason why a lot of models turn actors. You have to connect with people, talk to people, be able to be far from home, and you have to be aware of the camera in the same way you would be when modeling.
A journalist in Toronto named Shannon Boodram saw my Facebook page and told me I was ‘strikingly beautiful.’ She shot a YouTube video of me, and it made a hit, grabbing thousands of views. She said the camera loved me and that I should be a model. I had never thought about modeling – it just hadn’t seemed possible.
I was studying tourism at college and wanted to travel the world as a tour guide – that was my dream! But actually, sometimes modeling feels quite similar, because I travel so much – probably even more than tour guiding.
It took me six years to be comfortable modeling a swimsuit.
I was 14 when I started modeling. At the end of that first day my mum said, If you want to do this, you’re on your own because I’m not traipsing around London ever again like that. It’s a nightmare.
In modeling, because you’re the center of attention, it builds up people’s egos. Sometimes people lose touch with reality. But that happens with acting, too.
I went to a modeling agency and said I wanted to be a model. I worked, worked, worked so much while I was studying.
With acting, if you audition terribly, at least you know, ‘I messed that up. I was horrible. That’s why I didn’t get the job.’ With modeling, it’s like, ‘I’m not cool this year; therefore, I’m unemployed for a while.’ With modeling, it’s just, either you’re liked, or you’re not.
In my modeling days, I never faced situations where I had to really think about others, or my family and friends. I didn’t have a sense of responsibility; it was more about my well-being and goals.
I went to a local modeling school when I was about 10 and learned to walk the runway.
I was the first child at four at a modeling agency, so I had an advantage.
I also want to try acting – give it a shot – maybe take some lessons, I think that could be fun. I feel like that could even help me with modeling, because in a way you have to act.
I love acting. Modeling is fun, too, but I feel like there is more room to stretch yourself and open yourself up to new experiences with acting. That’s why I got into acting in the first place.
When I was 17, I entered a modeling contest in my home province in China because my mother wanted me to learn better posture. And the rest is history!
I do not make any apologies for my manner or personality. I come from a long line of very strong, black African-American women who neither bend nor bow. I haven’t had very good modeling in submission.
I started doing modeling and continued for good three to four months and then I started getting Kannada movies. Then I realized that I really want to try getting into acting. A lot of people started saying that have ‘I have a Bollywood face.’
Unfortunately, modeling takes you with no transition from being a girl to being a business woman.
I definitely devote so much more time to acting, but since it only takes a day or two to shoot and get pictures out – whereas for acting, you do an audition, or loads, and you might not get any of them – so I did the modeling stuff because, obviously, if I have the opportunity, I’m going to take it.
I was used to being the ‘ugly girl’ in school. I thought that maybe modeling would make my confidence better.
Within the modeling industry, there’s no doubt that there are some girls out there that are too thin. But there are also girls who are genetically slim and can eat like a horse.
I’ve been offered jobs by companies that supported apartheid many times in the 25 years of my modeling career, but I have never taken one of them. I have to refuse that money, because I’m not going to work against my people. They’ve suffered enough.
On ‘America’s Next Top Model,’ I mentor girls on television. When that TV goes off, I actually mentor other girls in the modeling industry – girls that have not been on ‘Top Model,’ but who appear in ‘Vogue’ worldwide.
I’m taking better care of myself by eating healthy, exercising and doing my best to keep my stress level down as well as role modeling good habits for my kids.
In modeling, I had to learn to like myself, to love myself, to feel comfortable.
I was picked up on a London street by a model agent. She took me to her office and then sent me to Paris to work in shows. It was supposed to be two weeks, but I ended up living there with my Zimbabwean boyfriend. I made enough money modeling and acting in French movies to buy a nice flat.
Modeling gave me so many experiences, like traveling and being exposed to global cultures, but the most valuable lesson has been working with designers who truly are visionaries in their field.
I was inspecting eyeglass lenses for a while. And I worked as a concession girl in a movie theater. And I was ironing before that. I always had some kind of a job. And then I started modeling.
I developed acne when I was about 19, at the beginning of my modeling career. I didn’t have the huge cystic-type of acne, but a lot of little bumps all over my face. They were small, but you could see them in photographs. You can’t have acned skin and work as a model.
At 16 years old, I was signed to my very first modeling agency. That was my first real introduction to the entertainment industry. It really opened my eyes to a world that was available to me.
I was modeling with an agency in New York and a manager with the agency introduced himself to me one day and he said he had auditions for someone my age. He asked if I would be interested in doing some.
In modeling, my height was a big challenge to overcome, because I was pretty much the shortest girl on the runway whenever I was doing the catwalk. The clothes didn’t fit and the shoes didn’t fit. It was an issue, but luckily, it didn’t prevent me from working.
I did my graduation in hospitality in Jaipur. When I was working, I started getting offers in modeling and did a few South films.
I did a lot of modeling in the U.K. A lot of it wasn’t high fashion because I don’t have the body or the face for high fashion modeling. I did a lot of sportswear, swimwear, and beachwear.
I’ve learned that you learn best by modeling. If you want people to learn, do it!
With the whole supermodel thing, even when you’re not really modeling anymore, people still call me that. And I’m like ‘… retired.’
The bit that I’ve always loved about modeling is show season: the hype, the chaos, the calm just before you walk out. It’s your moment – especially when there’s no one before you.
When I started modeling, all I really wanted to get was a Shabby Chic couch.
I remember when I was little, much younger than I was when I started modeling, people always said, ‘Oh, you should be a model.’ But I didn’t like people telling me what to do… But I didn’t plan to transform into an actress, either. It just happened.
