If you are ever wondering, 'If I have thinner thighs and shinier hair will I be happier?' you just need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest thighs and the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes and they're the most physically insecure women on the planet.
I have no idea what advantages I truly get, but I know people talk to me and give me time of day because they like how I look.
You can be anything. You could be the President of the United States or the inventor of the next Internet or a ninja cardio-thoracic surgeon poet, which would be awesome because you would be the first one.
Becoming a model was very counter-culture for my background, which is hyper-liberal, academic and feminist.
My mum never told me that I was beautiful when I was a kid - and I didn't read magazines or watch MTV, so I had no real consciousness about it all.
Even if I did give a good talk, is what I have to say more important and interesting than what Colin Powell said?
Hard work is not why I have been successful as a model.
I do have too many eight-inch heels which I never get to wear.
I am insecure... because I have to think about what I look like every day.
When I first lived in a model apartment... It was two bunk beds to a room, and the bathroom was constantly in use. I was bringing in Lucky Charms cereal, and one day an agent put a stop to that. She said, 'You're making all the girls fat.' They took it off our grocery order. That was the most dramatic thing that happened.
If someone has the opportunity to become a model, I would say, 'Do it.'
I was bullied at school.
My first day of high school, I wore brown boys' corduroys that my mom had sewn Sesame Street elastic into - they were my coolest pants - and a lime green Patagonia fleece that my mom found at Goodwill. I loved fleece.
I'm not promoting anything totally unhealthy because I'm not unhealthy. But I am promoting an ideal that's not attainable, and for that I have to feel guilty. I have to assume some blame for that.
The barrier to entry, to being a model, is not hard work. You don't need a degree. You don't need to win an award. It's just about how you look.
A ton of little girls I talk to, they want to be actresses or singers or models.
Modelling is an incredible platform.
I haven't done the profoundly impactful work many TED speakers have.
I've had a few conversations with people who are horrified: who tell me my work is demeaning, is sexist, is negative.
Modelling is no better or worse than many other professions, but it is more obvious, more accessible.
