Body Issues Come In All Shapes And Sizes!

We usually hear about confidence issues coming from women with curves – But that’s not always the case! Skinny girls have just as many self-esteem issues as everrrry body else. 

I wanted to write about my side of the story and how it feels for everybody to just presume I’m super confident because of my size and job title. 

  
I have always been naturally skinny, my mum is the same size as me now and she is 50! I dont excessivly work out or have a strict diet. I’m just naturally this way. I’m currently sat writing this post with a beer and several chocolate bars! (Sorry agents!) 

Although I have never been over weight I know exactly how it feels to be judged for my size and other things too, not just weight! I’m not particularly a ridiculously skinny girl, however, I have received a variation of comments on my size – whether it be friends telling me I’m too thin OR agencies telling me I’m too fat! It’s a vicious cycle. 

To be quite frank, these comments dont affect me as such, I’m more than happy with my weight. But let’s say I did have a weight problem or an eating disorder…

– Be careful who you make unwarranted comments to!

But this post isn’t just about size matters! I’m writing this post because people presume because I’m naturally thin and work as a model that I can’t possibly have self-esteem issues! That would be crazy?!

Wrong!…

If anything the Modelling Industry is cruel enough to give the most confident girl in the world appearance issues! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely adore my job! This isn’t something that I’ve suffered from majorly. But friends and other people on social media making comments like “you’re too thin!” Or “I’ll give you a baby portion cause I guess you don’t eat much” and then the other side of things like agents and other models telling you to lose weight and that you have “massive hips”  kinda gets you a little flustered and maybe even confused on what you’re supposed to look like! 

For example – The last time I was on stay in Istanbul one of the girls weighed herself (50KGs)… After that, I weighed myself (58KGs) and the reaction of the other model blew my mind a little bit to tell you the truth… “Woww 58kgs! Maybe you should watch what you eat!”  –Personally I wasn’t offended, I thought she was a bit of a brat… But never the less, not so offended. 

It’s really frustrating for me to hear peoples disgusted reactions if I ever complain about myself – “oh shut up you’re skinny, what do you have to complain about?!” Well, believe it or not Models, like everybody else are just humans. We get spots, we get stretch marks, we can all find something “wrong” with our bodies!

To me its pretty apparent in this generation if you are a size 10 or under you could not possibly have any self esteem issues! Again wrong! We are all one. We all live and breath. We all have the same body parts. And we can all feel bad about ourselves! 

Please stop presuming that because of your size, appearance or job title that we can’t all have body issues! 

“Models get crapped on by society just like everyone else.”

Thankyou for reading! 

Milly xxx

From Weave To Waves!

So as a teenage girl I obviously hate my natural hair, cause we all do right? The grass is always greener ey. 

  

  

Anyway I have worn extensions for about 2/3 years now and as you can imagine my hair wasnt in the best condition! 

As a child I was pretty much bald until the age of six, with the odd few tufts of blonde curls. I was so obsessed with having long locks that I used to run around my garden in a long blonde wig (I’m pretty sure my neighbours thought I had a long haired twin.)  

 Moving on…

I’ve never really liked my natural hair so I have always straightened it and worn extensions and bla bla bla. When I was in Milan I had a weave in and if I went swimming it would literally turn to dreadlocks, I couldnt wash my hair properly and it was just a lot of hassle to be honest! So when I came home for 3 days to pack some stuff I asked my mum to help me get the damn thing out, which in the end was a massive relief! 

   
   
For the first time in a long time I’m finally embracing my natural curls, and with my Turkish sun tan I really love my new hair and it feels healthier than ever! 

  
    
    
 Goodbye Weave – Hello Curls! 

Thanks for reading! Milly xxx

Body Shaming!

Its becoming a pretty hot topic that the modelling industry promotes an unhealthy and unrealistic body image goal. 

I’m all for loving yourself and being comfortable in your own skin but I saw something that kind of made me a little angry. 

I saw a magazine article called “The Plus Sized Model Transforming The Fashion Industry” – I’m not saying that I’m against plus sized models.. But this woman isn’t plus sized, she is incredibly unhealthy and overweight. It cannot even be considered plus sized. 

  
The main reason I was angry to see this as a positive body image goal in a big magazine, plastered all over the internet is because Models are constantly getting terrorised for being too skinny or setting unrealistic body images. When being this overweight is equally as unhealthy as being anorexic or belemic! 

For example; “Bones are for dogs, real men like curves.” This is a quote that I see all over the internet, in memes and on peoples social media feeds, personally I find this quote disgusting. Body shaming is not okay, whether you are discriminating big girls or skinny girls. It’s just not okay.

Skinny shaming is a really big thing at the moment but it doesn’t seem to upset people as much as judging bigger girls. We EVEN hear it in songs and nobody bats an eyelid! 

Meghan Trainor got away with skinny shaming majorly in her song “All About That Bass”. Referring to women slimmer than her as “Skinny Bitches”, I’m pretty adamant that if a singer or song writer called larger girls “Fat Bitches” in a song there would be a huge upraw and everyone would be disgusted! So why is it okay to shame skinny girls so much? 

  
I don’t want to come across as bias, but I feel like skinny shaming is a lot more acceptable than if you were to call out a girl for being fat. 

I was also very surprised to see that Gemma Collins had opened up a clothes store for women of larger sizes and held up a sign outside the front door written “If You’re Thin You’re Not Coming In”. There is absolutely no problem her opening up a shop for women of the same size, if anything it’s great! But if someone of my size opened a clothing range for women of my size and hold a sign outside the front saying “If You’re Fat You Can’t Come In” I’m pretty sure people would be completely outraged! 

So why is it more acceptable say this to slimmer girls? 

  
Body shaming in any kind of way shouldn’t be accepted. Why do we have to discriminate one size of women to make the other feel better about themselves? 

STOP BODY SHAMING! 

Friends Around The World

I wanted to share my experiences of travelling and meeting people from all around the world. Which is by far the best part of my job!
  
Before I started travelling I only knew people from England, I only really knew about the English culture, the only time I met people from other places was on holiday with my family and I never really kept in touch with these people other than a Facebook friend or an Instagram follower. 

  

  
I have only travelled to 2 countries with modelling, but in this short space of half a year I’ve learned so much more about different cultures and the way people from different places view the world, so I have learnt a lot from people sharing their experiences and thoughts with me. 

  
Even the way people address others and how they greet people from other countries is so different to the British reserved handshake or awkward hi, except the swedes, they’re very similar to us on that level! For example; Argentinians greet people with such a warm embrace, much like the Brazilians or Italians, but for me this seems like such a sign of affection and overly warm greeting! Whereas for them it’s just the norm. I also love how my friend Veselin, from Serbia calls guys he considers a good friend “brate” which is the Serbian and Russian word for “brother”. He told me that if it’s just a random guy that he would use “bro” but for somebody that he considers a real friend he uses brate.

  
Since I started travelling my whole mindset on life has been completely altered with the different opinions and thoughts of others opening my mind and teaching me not to be such a pessimist! 

On my first trip I formed a very strong friendship with one of the most beautiful minded people I’ve ever met, she is incredible in mind, body and soul. She has taught me a lot about what I know today. One of the most surreal experiences I had with her was when she read my tarot cards, before this happened I was always very narrow minded about spirituality and I thought it was just a bunch of crap. But she read my cards after only knowing me for a short period of time and this experience switched my mind from one extreme to the other, I cried a lot, it was just a surreal feeling! Now I love hearing other people’s journeys through spiritual experiences and I indulge myself a lot more in it, I even tried meditating a few times! If you haven’t tried it before I strongly advice listening to a guided meditation before you sleep, you will feel like you are floating. 

  
This job really has so many perks, but my favourite is definitely the “friends around the world” part. Learning parts of other languages, other cultures and other minds! I now know people from almost all over the world! And that is a beautiful feeling, I know I will see these people again in another city or maybe back where I first met them! 

  
If you haven’t had the chance to travel yet, my advice is GO!
You will never look back. 

10 Things That You Didn’t Know About The Modelling Industry!

As the fashion industry may seem super glamorous and laid back, it’s really not as glamorous as you might envision it to be! 

These are just 10 things I think people either misinterpret or just really have no clue about the modelling industry. 

1.) We Actually Do Eat! 

 

Believe it or not models actually do eat real food, we don’t have a celery stick and a bottle of water for lunch. Most models have a healthy diet and workout routine! Of course ocassionally we indulge in the odd burger. (Dont tell our agents!) 

2.) Shoots!

  

Photoshoots are not always as glamorous as you may think! There is usually a lot more going on behind the scenes than you see from the finished product! Sometimes for web or catalogue shooting and in some case editorials you can be working on an incredibly hot or cold day wearing the completely wrong clothes for the weather! For example; I worked for an editorial job in Verona, Italy – mid july – 35 degree heat – wearing over sized winter coats and a full leather pant suit! Not so glamorous after all! 

 

3.) Difficult Clients!

Sometimes you can have a really lucky day and have the best team of people working for you, super friendly and easy to talk to! Buuut you have the odd occasion you will get a rude and very hard-to-work with client who will make you wanna tear your hair out! I had a client kick a clothing rail over once! Talk about unprofessional! 

4.) We. Are. Skint!

Everybody thinks that models are constantly cruising around in Bugatti’s and partying on Yachts every weekend, i guess this happens sometimes but only on the very odd occasion if you are lucky enough! Most of the time we have about €10 to our name. Especially if you are an international model working in another country and living off the money that the agency advances to you, which is usually €50! Try living on that kind of money for a full weeks shop and other social activities. Not so fun!

5.) Getting Work Without Actually Doing Any Work

  

I wouldn’t really call castings work, but they are time consuming and very very boring! Modelling is not just about posing for photos and walking in a straight line, you have to go through a lot of castings and go-sees to actually land these jobs! Sometimes I will be waiting up to 1-2 hours in a casting (especially the case in Milan) with 300 girls in front of me in line, which is never someone’s ideal situation!

6.) Developing A Thick Skin!

 

If you are wanting to break into the fashion industry, you need to develop a verrry thick skin! This job comes with a world of criticism, whether it be from your agents, parents, clients and sometimes even friends! “You’re too fat”, “you’re too short”, “did you have lip fillers? They can’t be real”. Mainly this criticism will be based on appearance and for a teenage girl this is usually the worst kind! So if you want to be a model be prepared to get insulted and criticised a lot!

7.) Not Everybody Gets Along!

As this is the case for any kind of job, it can be especially bad in the fashion industry! Models have a bad reputation for being bitchy and snobby, this obviously isn’t the case for most. But sometimes you will have to put up with some, let’s say “egotistic” people and all you can do is bite your tongue and hope that the job will go fast!

8.) We Are Essentially Just A “Coat Hanger”

The majority of people believe that catwalk models are the main star of the show, when actually we are just an object to make the clothes look good! If you are in a show with 40+ models the chances are you are going to get majorly overlooked. 

9.) Surprise!

  

Getting told by your agent that it will be a maximum 8 hour job and then finding out you actually have 400 outfits to change which turns it into a 14 hour job is never what you want to hear at 5am in the morning! Also another unexpected change of plan I’ve experienced is NUDITY! Turning up for work and discovering you actually have to be basically naked for the shoot is usually something that you would like to think through and decide whether its something you feel comfortable enough doing. It’s quite a common thing that a client will completely change the inspiration for the shoot after you have made the commute to get there. 

10.) We Don’t Get All The Money!

Unless you are a freelance model, you will not be granted the full rate of the job you worked for. Agency signed models or models who have a scout/booker only get a percentage of the job price, the average percentage is 30-60% depending on the city you are in and which agency you are signed with. Unbelievably agencies in Paris take a huge 70% of everything their models earn! Which for the model can bit a little frustrating.

So if you presumed that the fashion industry is a breeze, think twice! 

NEW BLOG – My First Blog Post

  
So here it is – my first blog post!

I have been contemplating starting up a blog for sometime now, it always seemed to be an interest of mine a few years ago but I never had anything interesting to write about!

But now I find myself travelling the world perusing my modelling career, living with and meeting people from all over the world! And not to mention seeing some of the most surreal places you can only imagine visiting in your wildest dreams! 

How can I have nothing to write about anymore? 

So here’s my blog! It will mostly be about the not so glamorous side of life as a model but I will also write about my adventures, experiences and thoughts!
Hope you enjoy! 
Milly x