Adriana Lima wants you to know that her job isn’t always easy. The 34-year-old Victoria’s Secret Angel and mom of two girls has a kickass career that takes her around the world and allows her to work with incredible people. But, just as with any other job, there are good days and bad. In an Instagram post, Lima has shared the decidedly un-glamorous side of her job: working while sick, being delayed on her travel home, and missing out on quality time with her daughters.
In the post, she stressed that she didn’t intend to complain or offend anyone, but simply hoped to share some of the realities of her life and dispel stereotypes about models. “We work as hard as any other individual,” she wrote.
Some models experience long hours at certain shoots, low pay, and encouragement to lose weight to a point that may be unhealthy for them. This is what led model Sara Ziff to form the Model Alliance, a nonprofit based in New York City that aims to educate and empower models and to clarify labor laws.
“Models are generally treated by the industry as independent contractors, not employees,” Ziff told CNN. “As independent contractors, models are unable to unionize (that’s why we had to start the Model Alliance from scratch), they’re not entitled to a minimum wage.”
Posts like Lima’s go a long way to reminding us that being a model isn’t as easy as looking effortlessly gorgeous in photos—there are a lot of hours to log. And let’s not even get started on the insane amount of maintenance those model bodies require, whether that’s in the gym or in the kitchen. Yeah, that’s hard work. So Adriana, we salute you.
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