Kate Upton‘s journey to becoming a successful model wasn’t always easy. The stunning 24-year-old Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover star revealed in a new interview that she was bullied for her looks when she was a child.
“I knew nothing about fashion growing up, because in Florida you just wear bikinis and flip-flops. But kids can be cruel, and they used to make fun of me for having long legs and bushy eyebrows,” Upton explained in the October 2016 issue of Glamour. “My mom would flip through magazines and say, ‘Look, all these models have that too.’ I decided I wanted to be a model.”
The Michigan native, who is engaged to Detroit Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander, also opened up about the pressure she felt to lose weight in the modeling industry.
“At first I tried to diet to become their image, but eventually I realized that it wasn’t realistic — that this is just the shape of my body,” she explained. “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.”
Upton continued, “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. And besides, when I started working, I was booked constantly, mostly for catalog work. So when people were saying, ‘Oh, she doesn’t have the right look for a model,’ I thought, Then why am I working every single day? There are so many different directions you can take in the modeling industry, so many ways to be successful.”
The Other Woman actress says she doesn’t let haters get to her anymore. “I have to say, the other day I was reading some negative comments, and I was thinking they were really funny,” she told Glamour. “So I guess they don’t [hurt me] anymore.”
