How I Became a Model? | Weight Struggles, Victoria’s Secret & more | Romee Strijd

hey guys so today I wanted to talk about how I started as a model how I became a model and my whole story until now I got scouted when I was I think 13 years old when I was shopping with my mom in Amsterdam I got scouted on the streets and like the typical story like shopping and they asked me if I wanted to become a model and at first I said no because I never really thought about it and I was like so surprised with me but I just never saw myself as potential model we said no at first I think a year later all these TV shows came on the Dutch TV like Holland's Next Top Model it's the Dutch version of America's Next Top Model and I thought wow this is cool you can like travel the world and you do fun stuff and like shoots so I told my mom I was like maybe I do want to try to become a model she's like okay let me investigate in the agencies that are in the Netherlands and we just gonna stop by and see which one you feel most comfortable with so we met up with a couple agencies here in Amsterdam pension we picked one the one that we had the best feeling with that really wanted to take it slow because I was still in high school I was only 14 and we picked agency and we started doing test shoots in Amsterdam and on the beaches and I'm gonna show you guys here some of my first photos that were like test shoots that's what they call it if you're like super new they want to do like test shoots to have these photos to send to like potential clients and just to see how you how you do with the camera and I was so scared I still have my braces so I was like my mouth and like my the way I looked in the camera was super different and was also scared to look a certain way like fiercer for example so it was just like playing and just like look very plain in the camera but it was fun I was so excited and I was also with like some other girls that were just just scouted so it was very exciting for me but I was still in school so after these t-shirts you kind of start with Fashion Week but if your honor to 16 I think you cannot travel to the u.s. so I started in London because after New York Fashion Week at London Fashion Week then you have Milan Fashion Week and then Paris and so I started in London my agent here and then I'll and send these photos to casting directors of like shows and we really hoped I could do some shows to kick off like my career so I took some time off from school who was really nice about it they were like yeah for sure go go try so I went to London first and I did my first show I think it was Christopher King this one and Burberry this one and I remember it was so like crazy for me because I was in shock like Burberry there were so many big models burbly was a it's a very known brand so I was like very excited then I went to Milan I think I did proud out there and Joe sundar I couldn't really do any other shows because it was like semi exclusives I could only do those two shows and I remember from that that Prada was the longest wait in my life I would do the casting but they would make you way for like hours and hours and hours and not knowing if you would do the show because I think they were internally like discussing and you had to do different fittings and it was very I just wanted it so bad at a point that I didn't care about it but if I think back about it it was like long weightings and the only thing it was a white room and there were so many models waiting if they could do the show or not now if I look back at it I think for a young model it's not the best thing to wait for someone to say yes you're a right to do the show or no you cannot do the show because I mean I did the show so I was very happy but I saw also a lot of other young girls that were waiting there and hoping so much that they could do the show and they got an O and I think at that age it's too hard to tell yourself it's not personal and you shouldn't take it personal because I think when you're younger you really I couldn't separate my looks from me as a person so if someone would be like no we don't want you for the show I would be very sad about it now I see myself more for modeling and not as a product but it's just my cover it's not who I am it's not mine in sight and I think that helped me a lot because if someone now doesn't book me or doesn't want me I see it more as like oh your looks don't fit in our show or I don't like your look but that doesn't mean that they don't like me as a person or maybe they do it's also possible of course but it's that point I think I was too young to understand that so but I was just telling you guys to make sure you guys know that it's not always that way so after Milan I went to Paris and Lawrence was there too it was my very first Fashion Week and Lawrence skipped school to come with me and so he came with me and I did a lot of was embarrassed I'll show some pictures here and I was so happy and someone by my side like in London and Milan I think it was my mom and then Lawrence could take a week off home shoot from school not sure if he could really do it but he just did it and I'd take him with me to Paris so after that Fashion Week a lot of jobs started to come in but I was still in high school after that got more and more we decided to stop my regular high school and I think at this point I was 15 years old nothing maybe just turned 16 I just started working more so I needed more time and they had this private school in Holland where a lot of like tops boarders or people that just need more time off from school I went there they gave you a lot of homework to do on your travel but it was not so good for me I didn't I couldn't really combine it I had at this point a lot of struggles with my weight because I was traveling a lot by my own because Lawrence was still in school as well he was studying and my mom would come sometimes with me but she couldn't be all the time with me because I have a younger sister and she needed to go to work and my younger sister needed go to school and my dad needed to go work so it's she would come for a week and then leave and I still had to stay for a week for example and at that point it was I know I have a really good memory about it because I was not I didn't want to be a model but I don't know I just I don't know how to tell this but I wanted to become a model and I wanted to do it but just being alone so I mean so often and like being in hotels and having to deal with my weight at that point was really hard for me because I wasn't hundred percent sure that mulling was what I wanted to do because in the meantime my friends were still going to high school and they were going to Christmas prom and I saw these pictures always on Facebook and like other pages and I felt I had a lot of fun well like I felt like it was missing out and I think that's pretty normal from for a girl from 16 years old but I also saw that I had a chance that not a lot of people get so I wanted to take it because everybody was like wow this is a chance and you can travel the world and I got to work with so many amazing brands and meet so many amazing people so I felt like I should take it and make the best of it so I really tried and then I went to New York when I was 16 to do my first Fashion Week there I had to go a month early because well my agency advice from me to go a month early so I could work out and get ready for the shows because I was 16 years old and I still had a little bit of struggles with my weight but it's totally normal for that age because you have to learn what works with your body you have to learn what workouts feel good for you you still like discovering so much stuff you eat so much junk food it was very hard for me to just bring a seller to school to my high school where all other people were just eating like bread and that kind of stuff it doesn't come very easily for me I wasn't that person I could eat everything and be like super slim so I always ate very healthy my mom would always make sure that I didn't under eat like she would help me so much to make like super healthy sandwiches or super nice filled salads and make sure I had been honest and like all the good like make sure I have everything so there wasn't anything of like under eating so I had to go a month early to New York to work out there and my mom and my younger sister came with me and we stayed in an apartment in Brooklyn I would work out I think every day at the point that mom and younger sister had to leave back to the Netherlands I had to stay and for the Fashion Week and I did want to say but it was just mentally so hard because my mom also said like if your said about it please come with me and we stopped it and you just go back to high school because you don't have to do this like she makes you make me feel like I don't have to do it but I also felt like I don't know so many people said it's so cool what you do and it's so amazing you get this opportunity take it and make it okay so my camera dot camera kim murray gamrath i my battery died luckily because I was getting weight to a marshal let's try it again at the end of August my mom and younger sister had to leave to go back to Holland because my sister needs to go back to school and my mom had to go back to work I remember the night before they left I felt so like a little pressure here and I cried a lot and my mom was like you don't have to do this come home with us if you like want to go home but I also felt like I should take this opportunity and that I had a chance and I also wanted to give it a try so I can blame no one because even my agency I agreed to be there and wanted to become a model but I just didn't want to put the work in it I guess but it's also it was also I think I never realized what it would be like that you have to be alone a lot and that you have to work out and eat healthy and do this kind of stuff and meanwhile I saw all my friends having somewhere in Holland and being together on the beaches so I felt very very lonely and the day that my mom and my sister left back to the Netherlands I was very very emotional because I just started getting panic attacks and at the moment they went to the airport I just stupid kept to my agency because I didn't want to be alone and there was no one in New York yet that I knew so I went to the agency and they told me like you should stay if you wanna do this Fashion Week I just started tearing and tearing and I could not really explain myself and the way I felt because my English was very very bad I could only really speak a word English so I just said I want to go home I want to go home it's everything oh oh I said and they said you can go home but you have great options for the show so I called Ann Klein and many other good shows so I decided to stay and there's not really anyone to blame here because I I want him I wanted it really bad but on the other hand my body just gave me senior signals of not feeling comfortable with missing out having to watch my weight and being alone and I think especially because it was so young I think now if you will put me in that situation now I would also listen more to my feelings but at that age there was yeah it was different so I stayed there for Fashion Week fashion month and met a lot of Dutch girls like mark.wilson Daphne and we hang together and I stayed in their apartments with them so that made everything so much better and work fun but meanwhile Lawrence was still in Holland and I still had a hard time missing my family because I'm very much a family person after that fashion month I did the whole you're a thing again Lawrence would come with me it was great I had to go back to the private school I did my exam but I didn't make it because I was just not working on it enough to make it and then that summer I my parents got the force and that was something that I never never thought would happen I always thought that would only happen like other families and I never had close friends that had the force barons so I never had an example of how it can be a good thing as well I still had to travel a lot I just got more panic attacks and every time I was in the plane and go somewhere I would the days before I had to even I felt horrible and like on the plane I would get like this crazy breathing and like just a really tight feeling about my neck and sometimes I even almost like to throw up I just get really emotional but think about it because the way I felt was so horrible and I'm so grateful that I don't have in nowadays and I don't know how it went away I did I did breathing stuff but I think what really helped for me instead two months after my parents of the first the forest I was still traveling I felt very bad because I felt very responsible for my younger sisters luck my mom's are my debts and it felt like I left her alone my younger sister because I was everywhere I'm the world not with her and I don't know I felt very very responsible so I could never I always had this like feeling weird feeling on me that I was doing something not right but on the other hand I also felt like it was good to make the money and work on my own pad yeah it was just really really weird time because I also now adays thankful that I did this all of this because nowadays I can make much better choices for myself but two months after my parents had the first I just collapsed I got really a cry and I was like I want it back to school I'm on my diploma I want to do my exam on a regular school I wanna be in Holland I want to have time with friends I want to go on vacation with my friends I want to go to Christmas prom I want to be there for my younger sister I want to be there for my mom and I want to be there with Lawrence so it stopped mulling for a year and I went back to my normal high school the one I went to before the private school I think making that position all by myself I was just like I'm coming I'm gonna say this I'm gonna do it I had to tell my agent I have to tell my agent here in the Netherlands in New York and parents that had already picked big plans for me after this first Fashion Week that was going so well and I still had a lot of opportunities for work but I just felt like I needed to do this to feel better and just get my piece back in myself so that was very very hard for me to say because I felt like a lot of people had expectations from me now I'm very very glad I did I went back to school I had a really nice time still sometimes did some drops but not that many and I actually let it everything go for a little bit I went out a lot I gained some weight but still I gained away but still didn't really let go because I also felt like after this year I probably go back into modeling so I always felt a little guilty about it and I think that's a really bad relationship with food like when you feel the guilt because there is no good or wrong I felt I was doing something wrong by letting go and gaining weight because I felt like I was disappointing people that had expectations for me that made me I got in that circle that year of eating gaining weight feeling feeling guilty eating super healthy and then doing it again at one point I just broke that circle and still I have sometimes a hard time with these things that happen in the past because I got told to lose weight so when I eat healthy now I ain't healthy for the way I feel and not for the way I look because that's what I had to do in my past to eat a certain way for the few out the way I look so I don't want I never ever want to do that anymore because that got me in really bad mindset I never got I never did on reading or never anything like that I just put it too much pressure on myself and I wasn't fully behind it like I wasn't fully 100% agreeing with it if you understand what I mean after that year I did my exam in May and I caught it said I was great and then I knew Victoria's Secret casting was in September and I was gonna turn 18 so that meant that I could do a show and that was one thing that was always a big dream of mine I would clean my rooms or clean up my closet in my little bedroom with the Victoria's Secret Show on like my favorite one is the one with Justin Timberlake and gizelle bündchen I think I was a very big motivation for me to do modelling Victoria's Secret it was like that was the ultimate so I told Lawrence I was like I wanna go try out for this victory see good casting in September I wanna give it all from May to September I'm gonna go there work out do everything to get that show that's healthy that I could do so I went to New York I got an apartment with another Dutch girl and she was really into working out and making healthy food in a really nice way we started doing it together like cooking together and I actually started to really like it I was training a lot in my opinion if I look back at it I think a little bit too much but at that point it felt right I just wanted to give it all in September I did the casting Lawrence flew to me in September like after two months we didn't see each other for two months I think he came to me today of the casting he waited downstairs and then after we went home and I would get a call that night because I was the last guy someday and Lawrence was with me and I got a call that I booked the show and I was so extremely happy I just started crying and Lawrence was so happy for me because he knew that just going to New York being alone working out and that it wasn't easy for me being away from family and just that it wasn't something that's really me because I'm such a family person so I got the show I was so extremely extremely happy and I felt everything that I did that summer paid off and I got into fitting and then I got the show and I was just over the moon excited after that show I got to my agency in New York and they were saying I think you could work very well after this fiesh show because what we see with most models when I do Afiya show it really pushes their career it gives them a great like push I immediately got the feeling of like I have to stay here for months again by myself and everything so I told Lawrence I'm like I'm not sure if I can do this if I want to do this and he's like you know what very out of a sudden like he didn't really think about it for too long because I think it just came out of his heart he went to his work the next day and he just quitted his job he had a full time job in Amsterdam and really nice job that he was really enjoying but he also felt like I wanted to help her make her dream come true because being and working for futuristic it was such a big dream yeah he quit it and he was like let's get an apartment together in New York let's see how we like it if you don't like it after a year because you always do at least for an apartment for a year then we go back to Holland and you do everything you want to do and you don't have to do everything so I was like okay I like this so he came with me and I think two months after the show I got the call for my agency New York to come into the office because there was a contract an angel contract and that there was going to be a Victoria's Secret Angel and that's the thing I always dreamt off I was only 18 years old so I never thought that would happen to me after one show I was so confused because usually these girls worked longer perfect or a secret before they become an angel they do the show for multiple years most of the time they're a little older I think maybe like around 20 so I was so surprised it's so so happy I started working with Victoria Secret Lawrence was with me and my whole feeling about modeling and everything's changed so much because Victoria's Secret is a brand that made me feel so good about myself it's really really close family and they took really good care of me and they make sure that everybody feel comfortable I met all these amazing girls that we got announced as an angel at the same time so we got really close and we had all these shoots together everything became so much more fun like we do dinner after after work and we text it with each other so I felt like I was getting my friends there so I wasn't missing out a lot anymore in Holland of course I still have my house my friends from Holland but Mia Lauren's made sure that every month we would fly back to the islands to see people and see family and since we had our own apartment now in New York my family could come there as well and sleep with us what was actually really nice thing because I could show them how we live in New York and what we do and where I work out and where I have breakfast so I felt this was the year where food Leigh started to enjoy the work I think I'm just not made to do all these troubling yeah by myself and I think that's okay there are also people that are perfectly fine on their own and they enjoy to see the whole everything of the world by themselves and meet different people I think for me it was a little bit different to have Lawrence by my side and give me so much confidence that I'm the one that decides whatever I want to do in life or what I don't want to do that everything is fine and kept saying it to me like over and over and over and over until the point that I fully felt like that myself as well and I think making my own decisions made me feel very confident like if you feel something that you don't want to do it you just have to take everything in Europe like I felt more in control of my own life also because I would go into meetings and whatever with Lawrence by my side so it's so much easier to of course have someone that backs you up but if there's not someone like that with you you just have to listen to your heart because your brain can say anything my brain could say be and be like but you get this chance you get chosen to be a model so you have to make the best of it because it's a weight great way to earn money it's a great way to secure your future and all of that that would that my brain would say that all the time and like kept me going for a very long time but at one point your body is gonna give you singles if you're not really feel confident with it and if you're not very really feeling lucky you get panic attacks or this feeling or tight feeling around your neck or I think there are so many other symptoms I got a lot of like migraines it was just my body telling like girl you have to listen to your heart you're the only one that can feel what you feel and nobody can tell you like oh it's a great opportunity or oh I would I would do this for a couple years and then do this or that because everybody is different everybody feels something different everybody's motivation is different everybody's just different so you can really listen to anyone but your own feelings in your own yeah your own feelings and I think at the moment I realized that it made me feel so much stronger and ever since I've had a really really nice time in New York with Orient's we met so many new people we made so many new friends we did so many fun trips that was great and we did that for I think four years after four years me and Lawrence felt like okay we lost this struggle hustle mentality that's here in New York like it's very fast-paced it's pretty much all about work I feel like everybody that comes to New York is there for a reason for a purpose to work hard and get something what is really nice for a couple years but for me coming from Holland I missed that place where I could fully relax and be okay with doing nothing and I could never find that rest and peace in myself in New York because there was always something that you can do especially nowadays there's always an Instagram photo to take there's always a YouTube video to do there is always I mean there's always something to do so I could that's what I felt in New York that kind of mentality my best friend god baby and Lauren's brother as well my best friend is Lauren's sister Peterson and we want to miss out any of that so we got a place in Amsterdam as well and we decided to go 5050 so now we go back to Amsterdam so much more because I just love seeing my family and my younger sister and my parents and my family in law and my friends that I still have here in Holland I think for me having that balance of working hard when I'm in New York and fully relaxed when I'm here in Amsterdam and of course I we still work here in Amsterdam MCUs we work on country and on YouTube or but that's all stuff that I want to do because you don't have to do it if you don't want to we decided to start youtube and nobody else told us to do it actually everybody was like what are you gonna do I don't think that's a great plan but alright so I feel like these past years have been a really really great change in my life so it's amazing I'm also very glad I started YouTube because that's also something that from me made it possible to show more of myself and I for me that's really important because with modeling you get chosen by your looks with YouTube I just wanted to show more of my personal life and more of who I am I also felt like I know I'm more than my looks but I wanted to show you guys it's more oh me my looks so I felt like that's what we could do with YouTube especially Lawrence because he was always a huge fan of YouTube so he said to me already Secours ago let's do it I'm like no but then Carney class started and that made me feel more comfortable to do it as well so I think a core the class was the only one that had a YouTube as a model and I loved their video so I was like ok let's give it a try we were so nervous with uploading our video because it's a different way of putting yourself out there because you put yourself as a person more as a person out there instead of your Luc's because nowadays I don't care if someone says you rock me or I don't like your face or I don't like whatever they don't like because I see it separate from myself than Who I am I get really really sad when someone says like she's arrogant or she's not a nice person because that's more about me so that was the thing where I was really scared for with YouTube that I would take it very personal someone would say something about my personality because she make yourself it's a different way of putting yourself out there but I'm very that own fairly well and most of you guys like it there will always be some people that don't like you and that's alright - yeah for now I don't even know where I'm going with this story it's getting very long I have to go now me and Lawrence are doing a meeting in Amsterdam tomorrow I'm packing my bags for Paris because we're going to Paris to watch the Dior show again and also to do a couple fun days with revolve I'm gonna pluck that as well of course so I hope you guys like this little extra video I don't know if it was a mix of telling me about myself and also about how I became a model and everything but I just wanted to say very quickly stay true to yourself always listen to your heart and do whatever feels good for you I'm gonna go to a meeting with Lawrence now and I see you guys very soon [Music] Oh [Music]

Channel: Romee Strijd

Views: 3,322,071

Rating: 4.9706326 out of 5

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Id: RFPiXConTBk

Length: 34min 49sec (2089 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 27 2019