Trudi: Hi.
My name's Trudi Tapscot.
Britt: I'm Britt Bergmeister.
Trudi: Models have a lot of pressure of them for to be in great shape, to be able to fit
clothes.
It becomes very specific, your arm muscles, the muscle of your thigh muscle.
Everything becomes very focused.
What happens in doing that, in order to do your job, you become sometimes very over-focused
on your physical self.
That is your tool.
That is your machine that you're selling, so you have to be serious about it.
You have to be focused.
But you also have to be balanced.
You have to nutritionally be balanced.
You have to be healthy.
I think that our industry has taken a lot of initiative to try and help models not overreact.
The power of what a client says to a new model is incredibly powerful.
It just takes one person to say one thing about a pant not fitting right or a skirt
not fitting right, and it becomes internalized in a way that can be very harmful to them.
They're taking in a lot of information.
They're taking in a lot of opinions.
They get picked apart all day long.
Then they can't help but picking themselves apart.
It becomes a little bit dangerous.
They do have to stay in shape.
They do have to eat well.
They have to have the right measurements.
If someone says, "You need to lose a little bit of weight," how do you do that and be
healthy?
I think that fashion shows started having more food backstage.
I think that there's health initiatives.
I don't think anyone's encouraging anyone to lose too much weight or the big, bad word
of eating disorders.
No one forces that upon you.
The internalizing of information, of image, of what people say to you is the first beginning
of the problem.
You have to be able to interpret that information in a good way for yourself and your agent.
People will tell you, people are constantly giving you information about how you look,
how you dress, how your hair is, what you did wrong, what you did right, what the client
said.
It's always about feedback.
You can imagine if you go on eight appointments in a day, you're walking in, you're seeing
people, you don't know what they think, so you want feedback.
Sometimes you don't want the feedback, because it's not helpful.
I think that nutrition is important.
I think that staying in great shape is important.
I think it's about balance.
I don't think it's about going on crash diets and starving yourself.
I think that if you're consistent and you're disciplined and you're balanced that you naturally
get into a rhythm that serves you properly for the business and you stay in great shape.
Britt: With me, coming to New York, I was told that I had to lose a little bit of weight.
I thought, "Oh no.
I'm going to have to starve myself, not be able to eat."
I was really nervous because I like food.
I signed up with a trainer.
The first thing she said was,"Okay, you're not going to starve yourself because that
doesn't last realistically.
Sure you may get skinnier, but in a year you'll be done."
We worked on my diet.
It wasn't a diet, it was more of we changed my diet and my lifestyle of eating.
I was eating way more than I used to, it was just a lot healthier, a lot of salads, vegetables,
protein, chicken, fish.
We cheat sometimes.
I have cake every once in awhile.
It's about, as Trudi said, balance and working out and being healthy, feeding your body what
it needs.
I have kind of an athletic body, but I know I try and make that work for me.
My legs will be a bit more muscular than some girls.
It's important not to compare yourself.
You're in an industry where you're with the top skinny girls in the industry.
Just be yourself.
You're a model for a reason.
It's important to be true to yourself.
If a client doesn't like that, one client, don't get down.
There's hundreds of other clients that will book you for who you are.
Definitely don't think you have to starve yourself because it doesn't last.
The best models in the world Linda Evangelista, Cocoa Rosha, all the supers, they are awesome
models because they're healthy.