I Asked a Vogue Supermodel the Truth About Beauty Standards

Welcome And A First Modeling Shock

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome everybody. Today I'm here with Kim Alexis, the most covered supermodel of all time. And Kim, I was wondering if you could tell me about the first ever time you modeled.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

I was just 18 and had just graduated high school and was offered a job to go to Italy to work for the Italian bazaar for the collections. And I flew over there very green. I didn't know anybody and ended up uh landing and going into the hotel. And they had five-star hotels. They were beautiful. And in the lobby, this girl was running by, and she was in just this little white dress and no panties and no bra. You could tell. I'm like, what is that? And I'd traveled across country with my pantyhose on and my little outfit, and I was all dressed up because my parents had taught me to dress up when you travel. And so I'm like, what is she doing? Like she's half naked running through the lobby. And they said, Well, she's trying to get the cover of the magazine. You have to sleep with the owner in order to get the cover. And I'm like, Well, I don't want the cover. And so days go by, and when you're shooting for the collections, which is Hok Couture, so it's high fashion. And anytime things come off the runway, you have to be ready on call with makeup and hair and run out and do the clothes. And then they hand them to some other magazine. And so you're on staff 24 hours a day. So I was exhausted. But after a couple of days, they pulled me out of my hotel with my roommates and they put me in another room that had an adjoining door. The owner of the magazine that I was supposed to sleep with, which I didn't realize was in that other room, kept waking me up in Italian and asking me something, God knows what it was. Well, that's what he spoke. And so I didn't figure it out. But I said, no, fine, like, no, I don't know what you want. Just get me water. I didn't know what he was asking me. He left me alone. He got mad. Um, the next day or so I had the cover. I'm the one that got the cover of everybody without having to do anything bad. So it was a very big slap in the face of what the business could be. Yeah. And learning boundaries, or I mean, at that point I was really almost just too green, but learning that it's okay to say no and you still can get ahead.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

Yeah, I think that just proves even if you don't have to do like just nefarious things to get ahead, you can just be yourself.

SPEAKER_01 2:22

Well, I think if you have to resort to that, and I say the word resort, then it means you should be in another business. So we should never be so desperate in one business that you put yourself out there and then regret something later.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Yeah.

Getting The Cover Without Compromise

SPEAKER_00 2:38

So um, one thing my podcast is about, it's kind of about like from just ground roots from the beginning, kind of where you got to where you are now. So I was kind of wondering, what do you think kind of you expected to do before you ended up modeling? Like, um, what did you think you were gonna be in high school?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

In high school, I was uh 17. I was taking college calculus, I was swimming five and a half hours a day. I was taking also trigonometry, full load, was in the band. I so I was kind of prepping thinking I was gonna go to college. So my senior year, I decided I'm just gonna go and get my college out of the way so I don't worry about it all year. I wanted to enjoy being a senior. So I registered in pharmacy pro at pharmacy program, a five-year pharmacy program at the University of Rhode Island. I was already on the swim team. I'd met their coach, I'd met some of the girls at the swim team. So early in my senior year, I thought I had my life planned.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Um, and what kind of happened that caused you to just make the big jump?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Well, I was trying to make extra money. I don't know where I thought I had free time, but I thought I had free time. So I would go, I tried to go to a modeling agency. I grew up in Buffalo, New York. And so I would try to go to this agency, but they said before you can start making money, you have to go through this course. So I was in this course. My poor dad had to put the money out for this school. And back then, it was this is 1978. It was charm school. It was very, you wouldn't know, but it was a long time ago. Think of the book on your head walking and gliding across the room, that type silly stuff that didn't really prepare me. So I'm in class one night and there's this little man, he's in the corner, kind of like this, staring at me. And I thought, oh man, I'm gonna get kicked out because I had wet hair. I'd just come from swimming, I didn't have makeup on. I was a tomboy, and I thought, oh, I don't belong here. And instead of that, they said, Would you like to go to New York to model? And I said, No, I'm gonna be a pharmacist. Like, I have my life planned. I do, you know, so it took a while for them. And finally I said, take your pictures, like nothing's gonna happen with you taking pictures, right? Oh no. The head of New York's agency, the modeling agency elite, John Casablancas, was very much new in New York, trying to break it in and competing with Eileen Ford. And so he comes to Buffalo, has this big press day. I've discovered Kim. She's going to New York. I'm promising you a year's worth of salary. And so my parents said, well, just try it. Put off college for a year and just try it. Did you? That's when that cover happened right away, or I would have left.

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Yeah. Did you like lose your position in school when you decided to make that jump? Or were they just like a few years? Oh no, no.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

No, but every all all my friends knew, like I'm

From Future Pharmacist To New York

SPEAKER_01 5:18

still swimming, and um, but I would eat this little bowl of salad for lunch. I was starving myself because they told me I had to lose 15 pounds. I was swimming five and a half hours a day. I was like fit and strong and healthy. And so trying to drop that weight was very hard.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

Yeah, I can't even imagine. Um, did you ever think, like when you were younger, that modeling was something you ever thought you'd do?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

No. When I was younger, I was so busy with all my sports and my school and loved all my friends and whatever I did, and never read magazines. I didn't know how to pluck my eyebrows. Nothing. How'd you come across the modeling as a whole? Well, someone said that was a good way to earn money, that I could make more money. And I had been working in a drugstore for $1.98 an hour. This was way back when I was like 16, 17 years old. So it wasn't even minimum wage. I don't know how he got away with it, but he did. And so I was like, my big paycheck would be $35 a week. And I thought, oh, you know, and I had to work hard to get that.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

So all of a sudden, to go to New York and be guaranteed money for a year, I thought, this is great.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Yeah. Um, so you didn't really fit the beauty standard back then. It was kind of like the stick thin, you were athletic. How do you think that kind of how did that feel? Trying to break into that industry.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yes, trying to fit into an industry I didn't know with being a little bit out of their mold, I never felt good enough. Even if I had covers right away, I had a national ad for a makeup line within three months, which is unheard of. So things happened in my career, but at the same time, I always carried those words. I let those words seep into inside of me and carry them versus just like brushing them off and just saying, I'm me, either take me the way I am or I'm going somewhere else.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Do you think that ever caused like any issues or anything?

SPEAKER_01 7:13

It did in my mind. It was me worrying about um trying to perform for each thing. You can never fit into every single person's outfit. But if you didn't fit into something and the zipper didn't go up, you'd be like, Oh, shoot, maybe I should starve myself. And that didn't work either.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

Mm-mm. Um, how did it feel kind of just blowing up super quickly from just this unknown to just this huge superstar?

SPEAKER_01 7:40

It was a little surreal to me. I wasn't ready and prepared for it. My first year, I would have to leave New York City and go back to my parents' house, which was a quick flight, but to kind of reconnect, but slowly I didn't need their support as much. And I started getting into a rhythm and started understanding more of what the business was. And I spent a lot of time just looking and watching and listening and learning because I didn't know this business at all.

Breaking In With An Athletic Body

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Okay. Can you tell me about like um so I know you were really big on um sports illustrated with the swimline? Can you tell me one of the stories about like maybe the first time you ever did that?

SPEAKER_01 8:20

So the agency called me and said, You've got a meeting to go up and meet somebody. And it was at the Sports Illustrated office. And I again, I wasn't really paying much attention, but I grew up in swimsuits. For me, it was a natural. I didn't have to show myself in a swimsuit. I sat in jeans and a t-shirt like you and talked to the woman who was hand the editor, which was Julie Campbell, and just chatted with her for a while. And she says, Okay, we're going to Africa. And it was like, okay, fine. Back then, you just, if it seemed fine, you just tried things out.

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Yeah. Um, did the beauty standard kind of change over time as you were modeling, or did it kind of just stick to that one mold that had been from when you started?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I think I was in the business maybe eight, 10 years. So I didn't notice it changing as much. Back then, it was big, huge hair, like here. It looked like a lion's mane and big shoulder pads. So the fashion is constantly changing.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

Um, but in that time period, yes. I mean, even daily, uh one makeup artist would have her opinion of what you look like, and then they'd ask you to wash your face if they knew you were going to another job because they didn't want someone stealing the makeup or taking the credit.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

So, in a way, yes, it changed, but in a way, no, it didn't, because you can't in 10 years be that drastic.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

But now it's changed a lot. Yeah, it's changed a ton. Um, have you ever done any like just really hard days where you would go from like one thing to another thing to another thing? Because you were the biggest at one point in time. So you must have been really busy.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yes. At some point I had 14 different job offers a day, things that I could choose. Um, if I wanted, I could have worked around the clock. Um, not that people really do much work at two in the morning, but some jobs, if it was a commercial, it would be sometimes a 15, 16, 17 hour day. So you had to learn to pace yourself. I mean, all I wanted to do was go home, wash my face, and put my slippers on.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

I can't even imagine. Oh my

Pregnancy, Work Pauses, And Identity Shifts

SPEAKER_00 10:24

gosh. Um, so I do know you did have like a couple kids kind of while you were modeling. Yes. Did that ever like impact your modeling career in any way?

SPEAKER_01 10:32

It impacted my mind because here I am in New York City work and I I lived in Florida. So I would go to New York City to work. I had a house, a apartment in New York City and I had a home in Florida. And so I was back and forth a lot. But when I first found out I was pregnant, I was working, as I said, all the time. Now all of a sudden, my body is changing and work comes to a screaming halt. And I'm thinking, what's going on here? And what do I do with myself? Right. So I was running quite a bit. I ran through all of my pregnancies, but probably stopped at about seven and a half, eight months. And even um health clubs. I owned two health clubs at that point. Yeah. And so I was working out up until the day I gave birth.

SPEAKER_00 11:18

That's incredible. Did you keep up swimming?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

No, I did not. It was hard in New York City to find a pool as much, and I didn't have a coach yelling at me. All of a sudden, I could do what I wanted. And it wasn't swimming one more lap. I mean, I do it now, but I'd prefer to run. So I started running more when I went to New York City. I'd run up and down First Avenue with a black garbage bag on under my sweatpants because I thought I would sweat more and lose weight.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

So I'd be like, I feel like I've heard of it. I feel like I've heard of like weightlifters doing that. Well, the wrestlers. Wrestlers used to do that.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

And they would do that in our swimming pool on the bleachers because our swimming pool in Buffalo was like moist and warm, and so they were miserable, right? And we're like doing laps and watching like them up there with their garbage bags on.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

I mean, you gotta learn it from somewhere. Yes. So do you think that kind of as you aged the beauty standards felt different or kind of the pressure to perform felt a little different because you were kind of moving away from what they were, which is just young?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

I think I was spared that because when I was probably 23, 24, pretty much at the height of my career, I got a Revlon contract. So I was paid to be exclusive with Revlon and not do other catalogs and certain things. I could do magazines, I could do things that would promote Revlon, which was editorial, like your magazines, like all your magazines. But I wasn't doing catalogs or working with other companies. I was paid to just be with Revlon. So that lasted like three or four years until Revlon was sold and my contract stopped. And all of a sudden now I'm 27 and I'm looking around and I'm trying to go back in the business I was in. And people are like, What are you doing here? Like, you're too good to be here. You're Kim Alexis.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

And I'm the Revlon girl.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Well, yes. And I thought, well, I'm just trying to make money. Like, I'm just trying to, and they're like, no, no, like you don't belong here. And I'm like, so what do I do with myself? And so I literally got an agency which was not modeling, it was for broadcasting and writing.

Broadcasting Reinvention On Live TV

SPEAKER_01 13:25

And so I'm like, okay, well, I'll just try going over here.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

They sent me out immediately on a uh meeting to go meet with Good Morning America. They were looking for an editor andor correspondent. And so I ended up walking in the office, talking like this. And so she says, So would you like the job? And I said, sure. My parents always told me I could do whatever I put my mind to. So I'm like, sure, I'll try it. She said, Good, you're live tomorrow morning on the air.

SPEAKER_00 13:51

Oh, so you were like a kind of like a broadcaster?

SPEAKER_01 13:53

I was the fashion correspondent, didn't know what I was doing, and jumped right into a new business.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

What did that job entail?

SPEAKER_01 14:00

It was interviewing different fashion designers and different um trends that were going on in fashion. And at one point I got to run the LA Marathon in certain clothes that were fashionable. I got to go to the Olympics in Calgary because we were discussing Olympic ski wear. And so I got to do these fun different things, but it was covering any type of fashion. So we would go out and tape and we'd go and edit in the booth and do the voiceover in the booth and then go live on the air to introduce it every week for three years.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

What did you decide to do after this?

SPEAKER_01 14:35

That well, when that kind of came to an end, I'd had my second son right then. And so I thought, okay, what would I do? Now I have two kids. I'm living in Florida, and that back and forth for three years every week was pretty tough.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:49

Right. So I'm like, okay, maybe I'll take a break and take care of my kids and do the thing. But in the meantime, I started writing books and I started uh on a speaking circuit. And so again, new job, just figuring things out. I'm like, okay, I'll give it a try.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

The lesson years just throw yourself into things.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yes, and look around. Look around for opportunity because you never know where you're going to end up.

SPEAKER_00 15:11

Yeah. Um, how did you go about writing books? Was that you? Did you have someone help you write them? Because you had no previous experience.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

Correct. And I don't know if my English teacher would have thought I did a good job. But my first book was How to Be a Model, because so many people and moms and things would call me up and say, I have someone who wants to model. What would you could you talk to them on the phone for 30 minutes? And I thought, I'm just writing a darn book because then I can say, read it, right? And then I didn't have to talk to every single person. So that was my motivation behind that. Then I thought, oh, this is kind of fun. So then I started writing more books that were about parts of me, was mainly health things that I was trying to figure out. I was very much into with strain, staying healthy, and I'm trying to be as healthy and young as and keep my looks and all that stuff. So I was studying nutrition and I was studying alternative medicine of what was important. And that was probably from my pharmacy in interest, but I would gone had gone into a more natural way.

SPEAKER_00 16:13

Interesting. Okay.

Clean Living And Long-Term Health

SPEAKER_00 16:15

And what is some of this like health stuff that you're interested in? Is there any like advice you have to share with other people about health?

SPEAKER_01 16:22

I would say stop with the fast food, stop with the toxic things. I mean, there's toxins all around us, and as you're young, you don't notice, but we're collecting them all the time. And at some point, your body fills all the way up and it can't handle anymore. And then disease starts manifesting. So things we take for granted of in our 20s and 30s and our good health, most of us have good health at that age, um, can start to catch up to you and things can start to go out of whack. So my suggestion is stay as clean as possible.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Okay. I mean, that's some great advice. Um, kind of going back to the modeling, or actually like any of your businesses really. Did you do you think it was really challenging to kind of throw yourself into all of these businesses without knowledge? Like you threw yourself into modeling, into writing your books, into all this health stuff. How did you go about doing that without kind of any direction or anything leading you, showing you where you wanted to go?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

I think for me, part of my life has always been to be very driven. I used to take books home from school that were extra homework just because I wanted to learn more. So I always had this curiosity about life of, oh, what's around this corner? Oh, what else can I learn over here? And I think that served me very well trying to change jobs without that job security. When you're a model, you're self-employed. Yeah. You don't have any, unless you have a big contract, but you don't have any guarantee that the next day the phone's gonna ring. So it was, I better have something else going on. And different people decided to do different things. Some of my other girlfriends went into interior design or real estate. And so we've all got different areas that we are good at or liked. And we you you were forced to look around and decide, okay, well, what else do I think I could do? Where else is an interest? So you I did a lot of self-talking to myself. It did. Yeah. Like, why do I feel this way? What am I doing? Where should I go next? Why did that person say that? Why did I react this way? I mean, there were so many things that I am like, hmm, why do I not like being at this party? Or like, why do I why is my gut telling me something? So I learned to listen to those and really act on them.

SPEAKER_00 18:35

Well, yeah, I feel like nowadays it's easy to kind of just get stagnant with so many like distractions around.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah, there are a lot of distractions, but when you're motivated to do things and you feel like you're born to contribute to society and you have a curiosity and you don't mind starting at the bottom, yeah. I think that it's a very valuable thing.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I love that. Um, I'm kind of curious, how do you think it felt kind of just being at the top for such a long time? Like there were probably so many people just vying after your position. How was that?

SPEAKER_01 19:11

I never felt like people were coming after me to take my job. Number one, there were a lot of jobs. Uh, I was friends with blonde-haired, blue-eyed girls, which was my competition, right? Yeah. But I also had brunette friends, and there was more or less like a lot of times you worked by yourself. So when you saw another model, it was like, oh, hi. And it was much more of being a friend and kindness, but that's at least how I perceived it, versus, oh, are you here to take my job? I never worried about it because I always thought, you know what, if they take my job, I will go find something else.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

You move on to something bigger and better.

SPEAKER_01 19:48

Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

Yeah.

Launching The Unexpired Podcast

SPEAKER_00 19:50

Um, so recently I know you've opened like just a couple of different kinds of businesses. Can you kind of delve into what you're kind of doing right now?

SPEAKER_01 19:57

I'm doing what you are in your podcast seat. So I started a new podcast myself called Unexpired. And I felt that it was time to um for me to just venture out and start a new career again. Yeah. And it's all about learning and growing and moving around, but getting back out in the public eye again after so many years of raising three sons. And um, now I have a grandson. But the idea of uh just taking command again of what I want to do and where I want to go. I was trained to be a spokesperson. I understand what it's like to deliver a message, and uh my competition is influencers who have little things here and there, but it's not one product or one message that they're necessarily.

SPEAKER_00 20:44

Well, I mean, it's definitely easier when it's like a 60-second clip instead of a like 20-minute video.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

We can still use the 60-second clips. Um, is there any significance behind the name?

SPEAKER_01 20:58

I was born Kim Alexis. Oh, on the on the podcast. I was like, well, people ask me all the time if that's my real name. So yes, I was born Kim Alexis.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

It is a cute name. It just it's kind of like some names, you can just tell they like they just roll off the tongue in a way.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Yeah, well, I didn't know that when I was in high school. But the name unexpired, number one, when you were looking, I'm sure you were looking. Uh, there are so many names that are already taken, and you don't want to have a legal problem down the line. So I would look up all these names that I thought of that I wanted. And I had just finished an integrative health practitioner certification. So I was very much into functional medicine, and I thought, oh, it's going to be on health, and I want to talk about healthy food and clean living and all these things to stay young and active and vibrant. Yeah. And I hired the producer and he says, I'm not hearing that that's where your passion is. He says, You seem to be very interested in what you're interested in, which is how'd you get from here to here? And what was your journey and what was that like? And how did you have all these. pitfalls and what came out of it. So I was trying to find one word and unexpired was one of the few words that were not taken as a podcast. And that was like bingo. That's the word.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

That's it. Well it's just it's a cute name. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Yes. Well when you're my age, you want to stay unexpired.

SPEAKER_00 22:17

Yeah. I kind of thought that's kind of what it was. Like you you're still going strong.

SPEAKER_01 22:22

I'm certainly trying.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Mm-hmm. You're doing great. I'm kind of curious. Was there ever anybody kind of along the way, along your journey, who ever told you that you needed to change something about yourself to make yourself better?

Boundaries On Set And Self-Advocacy

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Yes. First was that I needed to lose weight. But second I had been working for over a year. I'd already had covers. I mean I had a glamour cover right away. I was busy a national ad. So I'm doing all these things but I'm like you know I'm not really a good model until I get a Vogue cover. So the person who was doing Vogue covers at the time was Richard Avidon. And so they made me go visit Avidon and I walked in number one I mean he was very famous. You may not know but I mean he was one of the most famous so you feel a little bit like I gotta be on my best behavior and wear my best little outfit and like to go in. He looks at me and he says yeah I you've got a look and he says I like it but could you remove that mole like no like surgery? And I went in the closet and I called my agency on some we didn't have cell phones, some phone sorry and I'm like they want me to have surgery I'm like bawling to my agent and they're like get out of there and I'm like did but he hired me right after that. Years later we could do a cover in five minutes. Once I had hair and makeup and was dressed and had my jewelry and everything on he and I could do a cover in five minutes with four shots. And so I would look at him I'm like you know you're the one who told me I had to remove my mole he says I didn't say that and I said you did and you made me cry he says it wasn't me I didn't say that I said yes you did wait so you guys like bonded you guys grew way over time I was doing three Vogue covers in a row. I mean I was we were churning them out for years after that oh my God was there any other time someone has ever done that to you and told you to no they better not dare at this point.

SPEAKER_00 24:18

I mean yeah I mean if you were way up here what could they say anymore?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Why would I cry? Why did I have that reaction instead I should have said that's your opinion buddy I'm doing what I want I mean now you know live and learn. That's it.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

That's what you got to take from it. Was it ever hard to say no to someone's request when everyone kind of wanted you to just say yes and do what you were told?

SPEAKER_01 24:40

Yes. So I used to be on set working and busy all day work and all of a sudden they'd be like take your clothes off and I'm like on set going wait what? No and they're like oh yes and I said why and they're like it is art. There was a lot of French that would do that. I mean they were very big into no no talk I'm like the romantics doing that that's not what the booking said you know that and they'd be like oh yes you have to do this and I'm like no I don't and I would literally walk out and I'd call my agency my agency would be mad at me and I'm like well I'm not taking those pictures then another time I was working for Revlon. I'm under contract I knew what my parameters were I went to a job they had one of the many things was a fur coat by Oscar de La Renta. Well you can't do a fur coat from Oscar de La Renta with a Revlon contract because Oscar de La Renta had perfume Revlon I was representing their perfume. So it was a direct conflict with my contract that I picked up the agency didn't I called them about they said get out of there and they had to handle the rest of it but I had to advocate for myself I had to know where my parameters were so I wasn't going to get sued and be my own person. Yeah how did you kind of go about um kind of learning everything you needed to from such a place of like you just didn't have any knowledge about this was it just I think very early on I learned you do this this happens you do that this happens and I wanted to make sure something I did here didn't cause a problem or a legal problem or a moral problem down the road. And so very much I was always like this that's not going to end well here. So I was very much self-analyzing and reading the room and understanding my boundaries and had to make those and draw those at a very young age without knowing I came from a small little town. I was protected I had great parents and you get to New York City and you'd better be advocating for yourself.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

It's a different world yeah do you have kind of like a little support team in the back that kind of like supports you through everything you do?

SPEAKER_01 26:53

I do now I'm married and have a wonderful husband but back then I was I was I had the agency but there were some things the agency would ask me to do and I'm like I'm not doing that. And they're like oh well it'd be good for your career and I said I don't care I'm not doing it.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

I feel like nowadays it'd be well actually it was probably hard to say no back then too it was because I didn't like making people mad.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

I think when you're a model you're there to people please that's my whole job give them the shot. Yeah and so I'm reading a room and understanding what they're asking of me so I can get out of there and go home right and so for me to have a room full of people that are mad at me when I'm 18, 19 20 years old I'm like this is not good but it would be worse if I stayed I really realized like can't go there.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

Do you think having experienced all of this that your personality has changed over time?

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Yes I look back at old interviews when I was 20 and I'm like I talk like this and I was kind of like an airhead I'm like who is that person? So yes you definitely develop confidence and um a backbone the the older you get some people have it right away. It took me a while.

SPEAKER_00 28:07

Everyone moves at their own pace. 18 is a very vulnerable age and I was just wondering how did you have the courage to step in front of a camera I guess it came from just the ability to try new things.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

My parents had raised me that I was I could do whatever I put my mind to and I wasn't afraid to at least ask and get direction from them and understand new jobs. I probably didn't know my very first job was like the scowl because I think I was thinking so much that it was this picture of me like scowling and walking away but they loved it. So loved it feedback feedback you really had to try and give them what they wanted to a certain extent.

SPEAKER_00 28:52

To a certain extent you got to figure out the lines you know what shouldn't be crossed.

Advice For Young Models And Staying Safe

SPEAKER_01 28:59

Yes. What is advice you have today for some girls who just want to try something new or even break into modeling I think that you have to really look within yourself and decide does this give me peace or does this give me agitation? Yeah. I think the answer comes from God and so I'm a I'm a Christian and pray about it. But I believe that it's okay to try new things. When I first stepped on the air with Good Morning America I was a nervous wreck but I still thought at least have to try. So that's good but I want young girls if they're trying to model not to be desperate. There are some really evil stories of young girls who've tried to go into the modeling business and it's got led them down a wrong path towards sex trafficking even which is horrible. Just came from a testimony of a woman today I was em seeing a show and so she spoke. So be very careful you have to find rep reputable agencies and literally stick with them at first so that they can protect you from bad people.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

That's great advice thank you so much. One more thing is there anything you want to plug on the show just for our viewers watching watch podcast unexpired okay Kim Alexis thank you so much for being here thank you