Cameron Russell / Looks Aren't Everything. Believe me, I'm a Model

Welcome back, incredible BookDuck fans. Do you often see models and want a perfect lifestyle like them? Let's hear a model's perspective and see if that life is really what we see it to be. In her TED talk, Cameron Russell speaks about her experience as a model and answers honestly to some of the questions that people always ask.

So the first question is, how do you become a model? She says she has always answered, "Oh, I was scouted," but honestly says that means nothing. She became a model by winning a genetic lottery, and she calls herself the recipient of a legacy. And now you are probably wondering what a legacy is. Well, beauty has almost always been defined as health, youth, symmetry, tall, slender figures, femininity, and white skin. And that's the legacy that was built for her, and that's the legacy she has been cashing out on. Now, you may be thinking about Naomi, Tyra, and others who don't fit these descriptions, but in 2007, an inspired NYU Ph.D. student counted all the models on the runway, every single one that was hired. Out of the 677 models that were hired, only 27, or less than four percent, were non-white.

The next question people always ask is, "Can I be a model when I grow up?" Her first answer is, "I don't know; they don't put me in charge of that." But the second answer, and what she wants to say to the little girls, is, "Why? You know ? You can be anything, the president of the United States, the inventor of the next internet." If, after that list, they are still like, "I want to be a model," then she says that being a model is out of your control and awesome, but it's not a career path.

The next question is, "Do they retouch all the photos?" She says yeah, they pretty much retouch all the photos, but that's only a small component of what's happening. She mentions the pictures are constructions made by groups of professionals, hair stylists, makeup artists, photographers, assistants, pre and post-production, and they are the ones who built them.

Another question she gets asked is, "Do you get free stuff?" She says she has too many 8-inch heels, which she never got to wear but the free stuff she gets are the one's she doesn't talk about. She talks about how she grew up in Cambridge. One time she went to the store and had forgotten her money, and they gave her the dress for free. Next, she remembers how she got pulled over as a teenager with her friend. All it took was to say, "Sorry, officer," and they were free to go. She believes she got those things for free because of her appearance, not for who she is. But, some people pay a cost for their appearance and not who they are. She has noticed these things happening even recently. She lives in New York, and in the last year, of the 140,000 teenagers that were stopped, 86% of them were black and Latino. And there are only 177,000 young black and Latino men in New York. So for them, it's not a question of "Will I get stopped" but "How many times will I get stopped?"

And the last question she gets asked is, "What is it like to be a model?" And the answer people are looking for is, "If you are a little bit skinnier and you have shinier hair, you will be so happy and fabulous. But she says models give such answers backstage; they say it's amazing to travel, and working with creative, inspired, passionate people is nice. These things are true, but they are only one half of the story because she has never said on camera, "I am insecure." She talks about feeling insecure and having to think about what she looks like daily. Many wonder if they have thinner thighs and shinier hair, will they be happier? But to that, she says such people need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest thighs, the shiniest hair, and the coolest clothes, but they are the most physically insecure woman probably on the planet.

She ends her talk by mentioning how difficult it was to give honest and balanced answers. She hopes that the takeaway from her talk is that we all feel comfortable acknowledging the power of image in our perceived successes and our perceived failures.

To sum up, Russell speaks about what it means to be a model and how it's different from societal expectations. The takeaway is no one is perfect, even if they have the ideal body and lifestyle. We should appreciate who we are and accept ourselves the way we are.