Fashion models are presented to the world as a perfection of beauty A perfection that is represented by numbers: height, waist, chest size, weight and even age.

However, since I started my career as a model, I believe I have met many models who are not confident about themselves. They worry about what they are eating, how much weight they are gaining and how their features will look in photos. Some models end up having plastic surgery in the hope of being accepted into this industry. I admit it is very easy to fall into this trap, no matter how strong your personality is, you are surrounded by so much beauty you end up comparing and competing with them.

Of course, there are nice sides to this business, you have fun being pampered, you have your makeup and hair done, you wear the most glamourous pieces of clothing and you meet a lot of interesting people.

I think however what should change is the way this business perceives beauty. Beauty should not have requirements; beauty is how God made us with our imperfections and differences. It should not matter the colour or the sizes of our body.

I started my career as a fashion blogger, I am very photogenic and I am a size 6. I was called for different modelling jobs. My only issue is although I have all the cards to model, I do not pass some castings due to my height, the fact that I am not 1.75cm certainly cut some jobs off for me but I must admit my blogging gives me enough and more for living and I model just as an aside job.

Another dark side of modelling unfortunately is working with male photographers. I ended up receiving cheeky texts after a shooting asking me out and other offers!!!! I know some of them who are very well known in the fashion industry and they abuse their power on models.

For this reason, I pay attention and get information about who I am working with in the next photo shoot and I always ask and prefer to work with women due to past experiences.

I would receive vicious and indecent messages right after a photoshoot such as “we should have fun together and still be professional” or calling me with different names during a call or shoot such as “my love”, “baby” as there was more of a relationship than a work project, making me feel totally embarrassed and out of place.

And above all how photographers would look at you if you are wearing shorts or bikini they would stare at your legs and your back like they have never seen a woman before. A photographer I know even admitted that some of his colleagues ask for certain types of swimsuits and nude poses just so they could stare at the beautiful girls bodies and get their kicks out of seeing how uncomfortable the girls were.

I hope this article will help you understand that if you decide to pursue a career as a model you will have to be able to face the bad sides as well as the good side and manage rejections wisely without falling into the pits or depression. You need to be strong and keep smiling.