00:00Translator: Joseph Geni
Reviewer: Morton Bast
00:15Hi. My name is Cameron Russell,
00:18and for the last little while,
I've been a model.
00:24Actually, for 10 years.
00:30there's an uncomfortable tension
in the room right now
00:33because I should not have worn this dress.
00:37So luckily, I brought an outfit change.
00:39This is the first outfit change
on the TED stage,
00:43so you guys are pretty lucky
to witness it, I think.
00:46If some of the women were
really horrified when I came out,
00:49you don't have to tell me now,
but I'll find out later on Twitter.
00:57I'd also note that I'm quite privileged
00:59to be able to transform
what you think of me
01:02in a very brief 10 seconds.
01:05Not everybody gets to do that.
01:08These heels are very uncomfortable,
so good thing I wasn't going to wear them.
01:14The worst part is putting
this sweater over my head,
01:17because that's when
you'll all laugh at me,
01:19so don't do anything
while it's over my head.
01:26So, why did I do that?
01:35Hopefully not as awkward as that picture.
01:43but also, image is superficial.
01:48I just totally transformed
what you thought of me, in six seconds.
01:52And in this picture,
01:54I had actually never had
a boyfriend in real life.
01:57I was totally uncomfortable,
01:59and the photographer
was telling me to arch my back
02:02and put my hand in that guy's hair.
02:06And of course, barring surgery,
02:08or the fake tan that I got
two days ago for work,
02:11there's very little that we can do
to transform how we look,
02:15and how we look, though it is
superficial and immutable,
02:18has a huge impact on our lives.
02:23So today, for me, being
fearless means being honest.
02:27And I am on this stage
because I am a model.
02:30I am on this stage because
I am a pretty, white woman,
02:34and in my industry,
we call that a sexy girl.
02:37I'm going to answer the questions
that people always ask me,
02:40but with an honest twist.
02:41So the first question is,
how do you become a model?
02:44I always just say, "Oh, I was scouted,"
02:46but that means nothing.
02:47The real way that I became a model
02:50is I won a genetic lottery,
and I am the recipient of a legacy,
02:54and maybe you're wondering
what is a legacy.
02:56Well, for the past few centuries
02:59we have defined beauty
not just as health and youth
03:04and symmetry that we're biologically
programmed to admire,
03:08but also as tall, slender figures,
03:11and femininity and white skin.
03:15And this is a legacy
that was built for me,
03:17and it's a legacy
that I've been cashing out on.
03:19And I know there are
people in the audience
03:21who are skeptical at this point,
03:23and maybe there are
some fashionistas who are like,
03:25"Wait. Naomi. Tyra. Joan Smalls. Liu Wen."
03:28And first, I commend you on your model
knowledge. Very impressive.
03:33But unfortunately,
I have to inform you that in 2007,
03:36a very inspired NYU Ph.D. student
03:39counted all the models on the runway,
every single one that was hired,
03:43and of the 677 models that were hired,
03:46only 27, or less than four percent,
were non-white.
03:50The next question people always ask is,
03:52"Can I be a model when I grow up?"
03:54And the first answer is, "I don't know,
they don't put me in charge of that."
03:58But the second answer,
03:59and what I really want to say
to these little girls is,
04:02"Why? You know? You can be anything.
04:04You could be the President
of the United States,
04:06or the inventor of the next Internet,
04:08or a ninja cardiothoracic surgeon poet,
04:10which would be awesome,
because you'd be the first one."
04:15If, after this amazing list,
they still are like,
04:17"No, no, Cameron, I want to be a model,"
04:19well, then I say, "Be my boss."
04:21Because I'm not in charge of anything,
04:23and you could be the editor in chief
of American Vogue
04:25or the CEO of H&M,
or the next Steven Meisel.
04:28Saying that you want to be
a model when you grow up
04:30is akin to saying that you want to win
the Powerball when you grow up.
04:34It's out of your control,
and it's awesome,
04:37and it's not a career path.
04:39I will demonstrate for you now
10 years of accumulated model knowledge,
04:43because unlike cardiothoracic surgeons,
04:45it can just be distilled right now.
04:48So, if the photographer is right there,
04:51the light is right there, like a nice HMI,
04:53and the client says,
"We want a walking shot,"
04:55this leg goes first, nice and long,
this arm goes back, this arm goes forward,
04:59the head is at three quarters,
and you just go back and forth,
05:02just do that, and then you look back
at your imaginary friends,
05:05300, 400, 500 times.
05:08It will look something like this.
05:12Hopefully less awkward
than that one in the middle.
05:15That was -- I don't know
what happened there.
05:18Unfortunately,
after you've gone to school,
05:20and you have a résumé
and you've done a few jobs,
05:22you can't say anything anymore,
05:24so if you say you want to be
the President of the United States,
05:27but your résumé reads,
"Underwear Model: 10 years,"
05:29people give you a funny look.
05:31The next question is,
"Do they retouch all the photos?"
05:33And yeah, they pretty much
retouch all the photos,
05:36but that is only a small component
of what's happening.
05:39This picture is the very first
picture that I ever took,
05:42and it's also the very first time
that I had worn a bikini,
05:44and I didn't even have my period yet.
05:46I know we're getting personal,
but I was a young girl.
05:49This is what I looked like with my grandma
just a few months earlier.
05:54Here's me on the same day as this shoot.
05:56My friend got to come.
05:57Here's me at a slumber party
a few days before I shot French Vogue.
06:01Here's me on the soccer team
and in V Magazine.
06:06And here's me today.
06:07And I hope what you're seeing
06:09is that these pictures
are not pictures of me.
06:11They are constructions,
06:13and they are constructions
by a group of professionals,
06:16by hairstylists and makeup artists
and photographers and stylists
06:19and all of their assistants
and pre-production and post-production,
06:22and they build this.
06:24Okay, so the next question
people always ask me is,
06:27"Do you get free stuff?"
06:29I do have too many 8-inch heels
which I never get to wear,
06:34but the free stuff that I get
is the free stuff that I get in real life,
06:37and that's what we don't like
to talk about.
06:40I grew up in Cambridge,
06:41and one time I went into a store
and I forgot my money
06:43and they gave me the dress for free.
06:46When I was a teenager,
I was driving with my friend
06:48who was an awful driver
and she ran a red and of course,
06:52and all it took was a "Sorry, officer,"
and we were on our way.
06:57And I got these free things
because of how I look,
07:00not who I am, and there are
people paying a cost
07:03for how they look and not who they are.
07:05I live in New York, and last year,
07:07of the 140,000 teenagers
that were stopped and frisked,
07:1186% of them were black and Latino,
and most of them were young men.
07:15And there are only 177,000
young black and Latino men in New York,
07:19so for them, it's not a question
of, "Will I get stopped?"
07:22but "How many times will I get stopped?
When will I get stopped?"
07:25When I was researching this talk,
07:27I found out that of the 13-year-old girls
in the United States,
07:3053% don't like their bodies,
07:33and that number goes to 78%
by the time that they're 17.
07:37So, the last question people ask me is,
07:40"What is it like to be a model?"
07:41And I think the answer
that they're looking for is,
07:44"If you are a little bit skinnier
and you have shinier hair,
07:47you will be so happy and fabulous."
07:49And when we're backstage,
07:51we give an answer
that maybe makes it seem like that.
07:54We say, "It's really amazing to travel,
and it's amazing to get to work
07:57with creative, inspired,
passionate people."
08:00And those things are true,
but they're only one half of the story,
08:03because the thing
that we never say on camera,
08:05that I have never said on camera, is,
08:10And I'm insecure because I have to think
about what I look like every day.
08:15And if you ever are wondering,
08:18"If I have thinner thighs
and shinier hair, will I be happier?"
08:22you just need to meet a group of models,
08:24because they have the thinnest thighs,
the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes,
08:28and they're the most physically
insecure women probably on the planet.
08:32When I was writing this talk,
08:33I found it very difficult
to strike an honest balance,
08:36because on the one hand,
08:38I felt very uncomfortable
to come out here and say,
08:40"Look I've received all these benefits
from a deck stacked in my favor,"
08:44and it also felt really uncomfortable
to follow that up with,
08:47"and it doesn't always make me happy."
08:49But mostly it was difficult to unpack
a legacy of gender and racial oppression
08:55when I am one
of the biggest beneficiaries.
08:59But I'm also happy
and honored to be up here
09:01and I think that it's great
that I got to come
09:04before 10 or 20 or 30 years had passed
and I'd had more agency in my career,
09:08because maybe then I wouldn't tell
the story of how I got my first job,
09:11or maybe I wouldn't tell the story
of how I paid for college,
09:14which seems so important right now.
09:17If there's a takeaway to this talk,
09:19I hope it's that we all feel
more comfortable acknowledging
09:22the power of image
in our perceived successes
09:26and our perceived failures.
