Kate Upon has a figure that makes jaws drop so the thought of someone not appreciating her body comes quite as a shock.
But in a recent interview with Glamour magazine the 24-year-old Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover star revealed that she faced constant criticism while starting out in the modelling industry.
The curvy model-turned-actress told the glossy magazine she was told to lose weight “all the time.”
“At first I tried to diet to become their image, but eventually I realised that it wasn’t realistic—that this is just the shape of my body,” Upton told Glamour magazine. “So I had to block them out. I think that the people who are the loudest about wanting to change you are the people with the least amount of vision and creativity.”
The Florida raised beauty said that while she was working a lot – “mostly for catalogue work” – she struggled to understand why people always said she didn’t have what it took to make it in fashion.
“In the beginning it was so hurtful,” she admitted.
Adding: “Where I grew up, it was considered a great thing to have a curvy body to fill out a bathing suit. For that to be a negative was so confusing to me.”
But now, The Other Woman star has proven all of her critics wrong and now doesn’t sweat the negativity.
“But I have to say, the other day I was reading some negative comments, and I was thinking they were really funny. So I guess they don’t [bother me] anymore.”
She still says she tries to stay in top model shape, but it’s for her own reasons.
“A couple of years ago, there was a switch for me,” she explained. “I used to work out to have my hips be a certain size. Now I do it for myself, because I want to be strong. I want to have energy. In my mind I feel like I can beat someone up — I really want to be able to do it! Oh, and I want a nice butt, and if it’s a quarter inch bigger than the modelling-world standard, that’s fine.”
And she’s certainly proved her critics wrong in recent years by becoming an in demand high fashion model.
The bombshell has graced multiple covers of Vogue and UK Vogue editor, Alexandra Shulman praised the model for embracing her curves and pushing fashion’s boundaries in a 2012 ed’s letter when Upton had the cover.
“Kate probably came to recognition in this country as someone who wasn’t a skinny, flat-chested model but who was having a really successful career,” said Schulman.
“The fact that she has built on her natural body rather than trying to change it and the fact that she is very focused and vocal about how she has built her career makes her interesting.”
But while Kate is oh-so beautiful, being ogled isn’t something she enjoys.
After landing her first Sports Illustrated cover in February 2012 the model confessed she “felt terrible.”
“After my first Sports Illustrated cover, I felt terrible about myself for a solid month,” she revealed to Elle magazine in September 2014, “Every single guy I met was either married or about to be married, and I felt like I was their bachelor present or something … I’m not a toy, I’m a human, I’m not here to be used. I am a grown woman, and you need to figure your s–t out.”
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