WEBVTT

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Hi. My name is Cameron Russell,

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and for the last little while,
I've been a model.

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Actually, for 10 years.

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And I feel like

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there's an uncomfortable tension
in the room right now

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because I should not have worn this dress.

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(Laughter)

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So luckily, I brought an outfit change.

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This is the first outfit change
on the TED stage,

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so you guys are pretty lucky
to witness it, I think.

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If some of the women were
really horrified when I came out,

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you don't have to tell me now,
but I'll find out later on Twitter.

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(Laughter)

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I'd also note that I'm quite privileged

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to be able to transform
what you think of me

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in a very brief 10 seconds.

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Not everybody gets to do that.

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These heels are very uncomfortable,
so good thing I wasn't going to wear them.

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The worst part is putting
this sweater over my head,

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because that's when
you'll all laugh at me,

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so don't do anything
while it's over my head.

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All right.

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So, why did I do that?

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That was awkward.

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(Laughter)

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Well...

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(Laughter)

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Hopefully not as awkward as that picture.

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Image is powerful,

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but also, image is superficial.

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I just totally transformed
what you thought of me, in six seconds.

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And in this picture,

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I had actually never had
a boyfriend in real life.

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I was totally uncomfortable,

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and the photographer
was telling me to arch my back

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and put my hand in that guy's hair.

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And of course, barring surgery,

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or the fake tan that I got
two days ago for work,

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there's very little that we can do
to transform how we look,

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and how we look, though it is
superficial and immutable,

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has a huge impact on our lives.

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So today, for me, being
fearless means being honest.

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And I am on this stage
because I am a model.

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I am on this stage because
I am a pretty, white woman,

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and in my industry,
we call that a sexy girl.

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I'm going to answer the questions
that people always ask me,

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but with an honest twist.

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So the first question is,
how do you become a model?

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I always just say, "Oh, I was scouted,"

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but that means nothing.

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The real way that I became a model

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is I won a genetic lottery,
and I am the recipient of a legacy,

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and maybe you're wondering
what is a legacy.

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Well, for the past few centuries

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we have defined beauty
not just as health and youth

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and symmetry that we're biologically
programmed to admire,

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but also as tall, slender figures,

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and femininity and white skin.

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And this is a legacy
that was built for me,

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and it's a legacy
that I've been cashing out on.

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And I know there are
people in the audience

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who are skeptical at this point,

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and maybe there are
some fashionistas who are like,

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"Wait. Naomi. Tyra. Joan Smalls. Liu Wen."

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And first, I commend you on your model
knowledge. Very impressive.

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(Laughter)

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But unfortunately,
I have to inform you that in 2007,

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a very inspired NYU Ph.D. student

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counted all the models on the runway,
every single one that was hired,

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and of the 677 models that were hired,

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only 27, or less than four percent,
were non-white.

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The next question people always ask is,

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"Can I be a model when I grow up?"

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And the first answer is, "I don't know,
they don't put me in charge of that."

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But the second answer,

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and what I really want to say
to these little girls is,

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"Why? You know? You can be anything.

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You could be the President
of the United States,

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or the inventor of the next Internet,

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or a ninja cardiothoracic surgeon poet,

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which would be awesome,
because you'd be the first one."

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(Laughter)

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If, after this amazing list,
they still are like,

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"No, no, Cameron, I want to be a model,"

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well, then I say, "Be my boss."

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Because I'm not in charge of anything,

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and you could be the editor in chief
of American Vogue

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or the CEO of H&M,
or the next Steven Meisel.

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Saying that you want to be
a model when you grow up

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is akin to saying that you want to win
the Powerball when you grow up.

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It's out of your control,
and it's awesome,

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and it's not a career path.

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I will demonstrate for you now
10 years of accumulated model knowledge,

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because unlike cardiothoracic surgeons,

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it can just be distilled right now.

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So, if the photographer is right there,

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the light is right there, like a nice HMI,

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and the client says,
"We want a walking shot,"

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this leg goes first, nice and long,
this arm goes back, this arm goes forward,

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the head is at three quarters,
and you just go back and forth,

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just do that, and then you look back
at your imaginary friends,

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300, 400, 500 times.

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(Laughter)

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It will look something like this.

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(Laughter)

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Hopefully less awkward
than that one in the middle.

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That was... I don't know
what happened there.

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Unfortunately,
after you've gone to school,

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and you have a résumé
and you've done a few jobs,

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you can't say anything anymore,

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so if you say you want to be
the President of the United States,

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but your résumé reads,
"Underwear Model: 10 years,"

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people give you a funny look.

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The next question is,
"Do they retouch all the photos?"

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And yeah, they pretty much
retouch all the photos,

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but that is only a small component
of what's happening.

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This picture is the very first
picture that I ever took,

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and it's also the very first time
that I had worn a bikini,

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and I didn't even have my period yet.

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I know we're getting personal,
but I was a young girl.

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This is what I looked like with my grandma
just a few months earlier.

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Here's me on the same day as this shoot.

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My friend got to come.

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Here's me at a slumber party
a few days before I shot French Vogue.

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Here's me on the soccer team
and in V Magazine.

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And here's me today.

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And I hope what you're seeing

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is that these pictures
are not pictures of me.

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They are constructions,

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and they are constructions
by a group of professionals,

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by hairstylists and makeup artists
and photographers and stylists

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and all of their assistants
and pre-production and post-production,

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and they build this.

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That's not me.

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Okay, so the next question
people always ask me is,

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"Do you get free stuff?"

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(Laughter)

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I do have too many 8-inch heels
which I never get to wear,

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except for earlier,

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but the free stuff that I get
is the free stuff that I get in real life,

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and that's what we don't like
to talk about.

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I grew up in Cambridge,

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and one time I went into a store
and I forgot my money

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and they gave me the dress for free.

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When I was a teenager,
I was driving with my friend

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who was an awful driver
and she ran a red and of course,

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we got pulled over,

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and all it took was a "Sorry, officer,"
and we were on our way.

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And I got these free things
because of how I look,

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not who I am, and there are
people paying a cost

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for how they look and not who they are.

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I live in New York, and last year,

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of the 140,000 teenagers
that were stopped and frisked,

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86% of them were black and Latino,
and most of them were young men.

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And there are only 177,000
young black and Latino men in New York,

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so for them, it's not a question
of, "Will I get stopped?"

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but "How many times will I get stopped?
When will I get stopped?"

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When I was researching this talk,

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I found out that of the 13-year-old girls
in the United States,

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53% don't like their bodies,

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and that number goes to 78%
by the time that they're 17.

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So the last question people ask me is,

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"What is it like to be a model?"

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And I think the answer
that they're looking for is,

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"If you are a little bit skinnier
and you have shinier hair,

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you will be so happy and fabulous."

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And when we're backstage,

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we give an answer
that maybe makes it seem like that.

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We say, "It's really amazing to travel,
and it's amazing to get to work

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with creative, inspired,
passionate people."

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And those things are true,
but they're only one half of the story,

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because the thing
that we never say on camera,

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that I have never said on camera, is,

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"I am insecure."

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And I'm insecure because I have to think
about what I look like every day.

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And if you ever are wondering,

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"If I have thinner thighs
and shinier hair, will I be happier?"

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you just need to meet a group of models,

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because they have the thinnest thighs,
the shiniest hair and the coolest clothes,

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and they're the most physically
insecure women probably on the planet.

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When I was writing this talk,

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I found it very difficult
to strike an honest balance,

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because on the one hand,

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I felt very uncomfortable
to come out here and say,

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"Look I've received all these benefits
from a deck stacked in my favor,"

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and it also felt really uncomfortable
to follow that up with,

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"and it doesn't always make me happy."

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But mostly it was difficult to unpack
a legacy of gender and racial oppression

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when I am one
of the biggest beneficiaries.

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But I'm also happy
and honored to be up here

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and I think that it's great
that I got to come

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before 10 or 20 or 30 years had passed
and I'd had more agency in my career,

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because maybe then I wouldn't tell
the story of how I got my first job,

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or maybe I wouldn't tell the story
of how I paid for college,

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which seems so important right now.

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If there's a takeaway to this talk,

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I hope it's that we all feel
more comfortable acknowledging

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the power of image
in our perceived successes

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and our perceived failures.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)