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06th Apr 2016

A Former Victoria’s Secret Angel Has Opened Up About How Modelling Damaged Her Body Image

Ellen Tannam

Erin Heatherton is a stunning model who used to be a Victoria’s Secret angel up until 2013, and she’s spoken about the effect her career has had on her body image.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not positive.

She told Motto  about the pressure she felt to lose weight a few years into her modelling career

“My last two Victoria’s Secret shows, I was told I had to lose weight,” she says. “I look back like, ‘Really?’”

In the beginning, Heatherton tried to please the people she was working for by taking up a rigorous training and diet regime, but leading up to her final VS show in 2013, her body just ‘wouldn’t do it’ in terms of meeting the standards set by the company.

“And I got to a point where one night I got home from a workout and I remember staring at my food and thinking maybe I should just not eat.”

She parted ways with the company shortly after, realising she had more issues than she had previously thought with the industry.

“I realized I couldn’t go out into the world—parading my body and myself in front of all these women who look up to me—and tell them that this is easy and simple and everyone can do this.”

“I’m willing to sacrifice my pride, in a sense, and my privacy because I know that if I don’t speak about it, I could be withholding information that would really help women.”