The modelling world is hard. Yes, by being a model you’ve been praised as stereotypically beautiful. But your job is never fixed, your job is to go to many job interviews, where you are compared, based on your appearance, to other people who seem exceptionally beautiful, maybe more beautiful than you. It’s really not surprising we all have moments where we feel especially low and fall into a trap of self deprecation. I’ve made a list of ten things to do when this happens.
1. Remember that while you see all of another model’s beauty, you are your worst critic and you see yourself, and she sees herself, very differently from the way anyone else does. Chances are, every model at a casting call feels someone else is the most beautiful one there
2. Take off your make up. We spend a lot of time in make up. Everyone knows the feeling of taking those 10 pounds of make up off your face to find that what’s underneath is a little plain and boring. It’s not. We just get too used to seeing ourselves so completely glammed up that our bare skin is a huge contrast. Taking off your make up and going out into the world ’face naked’ is important for your ability to recognise yourself and your beauty in your most natural and genuine form
3. Take a little break from those friends that seem always to be talking about body image and beauty. Models or not, everyone has some friend/s who obsess over their physical attributes, and normally in a bad way. Thinking and ruminating on this kind of thing can do no good. The more we think about something, the more it has power over us
4. Think about flowers. There are lots of kinds of flowers. My personal favourites are roses, peonies, corn flowers, baby’s breath, orchids and cherry blossoms. Your favourite flowers are probably not exactly the same, and we might not agree which flower is the most beautiful. This is the same with people. Just because someone is cast over you, or you feel someone is more beautiful than you, remember that this is not an objective truth. Beauty is subjective, we all see things and people in a different light, from a different perspective. But just like flowers, we are really are beautiful in our own uniqueness, no matter how cliched that is.
5. Eat the cake. Don’t restrict and deny yourself things you’ll enjoy as some kind of punishment for not being the skinniest girl at the catwalk casting. You have value and you deserve enjoyment. (Note that this is a more complex issue for those with an eating disorder, and while the message still applies, I understand how challenging it can be. If your relationship with food has become so intensely stressful/upsetting/difficult, please talk to someone)
6. Eat clean and healthy. This may seem to contrast the cake idea – but just listen to what your body wants. Often it’s chocolate and cake, but even more often if you really listen to your body and feel how it reacts, it’s asking for vegetables, clean food. Not because it will make you skinnier. Not because it will clear our pours and make your skin glow. Eat healthily because it’s good for you – good for your guts, good fuel to keep you going and doing all you want to do. (Side note, the only way to truly eat healthily is to eat vegan)
7. Meditate and do yoga. Get your insides feeling all beautiful like you’re a glowing orb of energy and light and life and all that good stuff.
8. Spend time on your hobbies. Don’t let modelling be your entire life. This one’s pretty simple
9. Do something for someone else. Self care is amazing and important. But sometimes we get so caught up in thinking of ourselves that we forget about other people. We forget that most of the time, what actually makes us feel most genuinely happy, is doing things for others. That can look like a lot of different things.
10. Remember external beauty isn’t everything. There probably, definitely, is someone more beautiful than you. But really, does that matter? Does that matter more than your dog? Than your best friend? The ocean and how much you love to swim in it? More than your favourite pasta or that Ben and Jerry’s has vegan ice cream now? It can be hard to remember in this industry sometimes, that beauty really isn’t everything. Life is messy and brilliant and there is so much more to care about and spend your time on than how you look.
