Treasure Yourself (7 page)

given. If I chose to, I could also spend my time wishing I looked different and comparing myself to other

women around the world but I realise that this is a waste of my time and energy. I am who I am, nothing

more and nothing less, and so are you. It’s about appreciating who you are as a unique individual.

Ultimately you can choose to be beautiful and confident.

The model experience… What an experience modelling has been. There have been some great times and

some sad and lonely times. It is interesting to me how modelling is perceived by many people. My own

idea of what modelling was like was very different from the reality. I remember at 13 years old, when I

first started modelling, I thought that models got to choose what they wanted to wear in a shoot, lived a

glamorous life, made lots of money and were physically perfect. My opinion of myself was far from that.

It’s interesting looking back and realising how much I have grown and changed as a person through my

experiences in this industry. I want to share with you a few of the stories from my 13 years of modelling.

One of the very first trips I had for modelling was to Japan. I arrived in Japan to a model house full of

European girls who didn’t speak English. I shared a room with one of the girls. The model house wasn’t

that great. Things were really tough and everyone found it hard to make money. I remember eating rice a

lot of the time. No one really bought much food because it would always go missing out of the fridge in

the middle of the night and no one would ever own up to taking it. Nor did they own up to taking clothes

that didn’t belong to them!

I was 17, nearly 18, and I was not so sure modelling was what I really wanted to do. I was in Japan for

approximately two months. I celebrated my 18th birthday there. Being the first time I had been away from

home on my birthday I missed my family but the girls and the agency made my birthday special by

throwing a surprise party for me. Despite this, after Japan I returned to Australia feeling like modelling

wasn’t for me.

I was doing the occasional modelling job but wasn’t that interested in pursuing it any further, and I had

been back in Australia for about a year when the opportunity came up to go to Paris.

I lived in Paris for about six months. During one of the photo shoots there, toward the end of the shoot,

my eyes starting hurting. The photographer had taken the protective layer off the flash and had it super

close to my face. He told me to stare into it as we were shooting a beauty story and he wanted my eyes to

sparkle. I mentioned to the photographer that this could not be good for my eyes and he told me it was

fine. That night I ended up in a Paris hospital vomiting from the pain. My eyes had been burnt inside and

had blistered. The doctor told me that I was lucky that I stopped work when I did. He likened my eyes

being exposed to the continued bright flash to the burn from a welding flash that tradesman sometimes get;

the difference being that I had to endure continual flashes for most of the eight-hour shoot.

I left the hospital with patches on and ointment in my eyes. Thankfully, my boyfriend at the time was

with me in Paris and I was lucky to have him there as he took care of me. I had to leave the patches on my

eyes for ten days and could only remove them briefly to squeeze the burn ointment into them. Since I was

a little girl I have always been afraid of the dark and now I couldn’t see and my world was in total

darkness. I was unsure if my eyes were going to be okay and I was scared. I was on the other side of the

world and so far away from my family. I thought about the situation then literally chose to create peace

within myself. That’s when I knew all would be okay. This experience made me appreciate my sight,

something that I am so blessed to have.

The same experience happened to me again in New York, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad! From these

experiences I have learned to speak up when things don’t seem to be right and to say an outright ‘no!’ if

there is something happening that I am not one hundred percent happy about.

For ten years I flew around the world (I don’t know how many times), the majority of the time flying

economy class and going straight to work after 26 hours of travel, feeling extremely jetlagged and tired.

I’ve sat next to people who have fallen asleep and dribbled on my shoulder and almost snored the plane

down. I’ve been vomited on by babies and sat next to children who have screamed the whole trip. I’ve sat

next to people who want to talk your legs off when you are really tired and also people who just don’t

want to talk at all. It’s been interesting to say the least and a lot of fun sometimes, but also exhausting.

In the last few years since I’ve been working with Victoria’s Secret I now get to travel business or first

class and I can’t tell you how fortunate I feel. I realise that a lot of people never get a chance to fly, let

alone fly first class! I am grateful for the opportunities and experiences I have had.

A lot of girls out there strive to look like models. I think there is no such thing as looking like a model.

Most of you would be surprised by how many different shapes, sizes and looks you find with women in

the modelling industry. And there’s a big difference between the models you see in the magazines and

what we actually look like in real life. Models don’t wake up looking like they stepped off a magazine

spread, or appear as fresh after a long, tiring day.

We go through hours of getting hair and makeup done as well as picking the most flattering outfit for our

body type. Some people may be closer to the current idea of beauty but we still have freckles in odd

places, dimples where we might not want them, and body parts we would like to change. There is no such

thing as being picture perfect. Ultimately we are our harshest critics. Often we see our imperfections as

limiting when others don’t even notice them. If you can give up ‘trying to look good’ or ‘trying to avoid

looking bad’ and just be authentically who you really are, a new level of freedom and self-expression

will emerge. You get to be ‘real’ not only with others, but most importantly with yourself.

Try your best not to judge others. Judging people or feeling as though people are judging you are

challenges worth overcoming. Sometimes people find it hard to believe that there’s more to me than what

they see on the outside. Part of my challenge to remain true to myself has been learning not to

overcompensate for the preconceptions others might have about me.

It is easy to fall into the trap of judging someone based on your own ideas about what you feel others

‘should’ be like, but in that process you fail to see who a person really is. Instead of judging people I try

to take time out to get to know and to speak with them. If people take the time to look beyond the outside

they quite often find a different kind of person on the inside.

Fashion vs. style… For me, fashion and style are two separate things. Style is how you express your

unique individuality; it’s about the relationship you have with yourself. Fashion, on the other hand, is all

about the clothes and their relationship to the world or the moment. So while I’m surrounded by fashion in

my day-to-day life, I also have my own sense of style. Fashion is great but I believe style forms part of

your identity; the inner you expressed to the outer world.

Being beautiful on the outside doesn’t mean you auto–matically love who you are. Have you ever met

people who seem to have it all but are never truly happy? You could be extremely attractive and still feel

insecure, judged and be a victim of self-criticism. Treasuring yourself is about changing limiting and

negative thoughts. It’s about being able to say, ‘I love and approve of myself’.

It’s not the way we look on the outside that matters, it’s the way we feel on the inside that counts. It is

important to accept ourselves for who we are; feel good about ourselves and carry an inner strength so we

can live a healthy, empowered and productive life. Say to yourself, ‘When I embrace myself and treasure

who I am then love and respect flows into my life’.

Knowing what you think about yourself is the first step towards challenging negative beliefs and

thoughts. Replace negative beliefs with positive affirmations or power thoughts, which you can find in the

second part of this book.

Getting Personal:

– How would you describe yourself physically to other people?

– How do you feel about your appearance?

– What do you like about the way you look?

– What is in your power to change easily?

Did you say more negative things about yourself or more positive things? Replace each negative

thought with a positive one. Even if it feels a bit strange every time you think something negative, stop

yourself, and replace the negative with a positive statement.

One of my favourite poems for beauty advice is by Sam Levenson. It was one of Audrey Hepburn’s

favourites:

Time Tested Beauty Tips

For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge you’ll never walk alone.

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed and redeemed: never