On Wednesday, February 18th, Kellin, Katie, Nubia, and I were all extremely excited to get the chance to talk to Victoria Lee, an aspiring model, about what her life was like. We met in the library to talk about what it was like to be a model, how that affected her, and possibly how it affected everyone else, as well. Victoria is originally from a small town in Australia, and her dream to become a model took off when Miranda Kerr, yet another model from a small town in Australia, made it big in the industry. “I thought that if she could do it, I could do it,” Victoria explains. When asked if she had experienced negative affects based on her career, Victoria talked about how (though she made sure to notify us that she was not arrogant and had worked to get into the position that she is) there was forms of jealousy having to do with her old friends back home. “As in the wider community, the emotional side of things can be really tough. I’ve been homesick, I’ve been physically sick from stress, you know, it’s a lot of work and it can really play on your mind. Again, the body image can get to you if you don’t have a strong sense of self or support network–I’m really lucky to have an amazing family I can fall back on and I can call anytime, and I have the agency, I’m very lucky to have them. The negative part would probably be that you have to get a lot of strength mentally and physically.” Victoria went on to talk about how modeling is a different concept than what people actually realize, and that you have to work hard to maintain a fit body and to keep up with traveling and jet-lag and hours of shooting in the same position while wearing seven inch heels. She talks about how most models actually are healthy people, other than the few models that stay thin by starving themselves and smoking, which most people don’t actually realize. Victoria also made sure to mention that models need to be smart to stay in the industry and that they aren’t actually the dumb people that others may think they are. Models need to balance their economics, health, and outside lives all at once, and still look good doing it. The bottom line is not to judge others at fist sight and to keep an open mind no matter what.