Marina Linchuk
You know how you always hear every model say the same thing - "I was so ugly as a child.", "My classmates all made fun of me.", "I was called ______" (fill in the blank - skinny knees, froggy face, fat lips, etc.). Well some magazine, and I apologize profusely for not knowing which one (please help out if you know), had the smarts to track down childhood pictures of a number of the most successful Russian models and as you can see they were not only far from ugly children but in most cases seem to have had quite an affinity for posing!
Anna Selezneva
Diana Farkhullina
Sasha Pivovarova
Vlada
Olga Sherer
Tanya D
12 comments:
i really love this post.
interesting to see the before and after.
You're right. I have never seen a model interviewed who didn't say they were an ugly child. Why is this? Is their self-image so poor that they get driven to starve and exhibit themselves to compensate?
I also think that many times, women aren't "allowed" to think that highly of themselves. Especially amongst other women. I can just imagine if someone said, "yes in fact I think I am beautiful", they would say she is full of herself. I have hardly heard a man state that he thinks he is ugly. But that's another story. :) Enjoy the pictures and insights from this blog. I always walk away pondering...
Kids are also really mean with those that they perceive as different or as a menace. Be tall, be short, be prettier, be ugly, be chubby, be stincky, be the poorer, be the richier, be the best in the class, you'll be laughed at. I love kids, but they're not kind with those who stick out of the crowd.
Those little girls are SO Russians, it's amazing. I knew before reading the text. The adults are not so typified.
I think models say they were ugly for the same reason James Frey pretended he was once a hardened criminal. Everyone loves a hard luck story, especially their own.
i loved this post.
diana farkhullina is a goddess.
wow. so true. they were all beauties from the beginning. great post!
db is right on the money (pun intended).
Great post. Love Vlada and the fox!
Oh man, every day of my life I was told I was ugly and a freak, because I was 6 foot in 6th grade and had ginger hair and pretty strong features. Pretty common experience, and yes I do realize that as far as things go, not such a great problem. I was lucky enough to have people I trusted (parents, dance teacher) who told me that I was "pretty" and I was lucky to realize, oh geez, it's really subjective. And yeah, I grew up to be considered an attractive person (and yeah, I modeled but got out of that hell early). A lot of people don't get that reinforcement, so they only believe what they hear from other people. Which explains a lot about the "industry" and the exploitation that takes place within it. Yes, they're gorgeous kids. But you don't know if they felt that way, or heard that. So it's not tragic to a lot of you, but try a little understanding. Also remember that these Russian/Eastern European girls are often the only financial hope of their families.
More interesting than their looks is how remarkable some of the photographs are. The child Vlada and Olga Sherer photos could be Eggleston or Freidlander.
I think that's true of so many girls (and boys) who, as teenagers in particular, thought of themselves as ugly - anything that marks them out as different (being tall, being short, being skinnny, being fat, having cheekbones, not having cheekbones, big lips, small lips etc )is a cue for being called ugly. I know so many gorgeous people who thought of themselves as ugly or ordinary as children - and now realise that wasn't the case at all. You don't know what you have until you don't have it anymore.
I dig these pairings of images - same goes for the earlier shots on Diane Arbus' photograph of the twin sisters grown up.
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