Looks aren't everything. Believe me, I'm a model. | Cameron Russell

Hi, my name is Cameron Russell and for the last.

Little while. I've been a model actually for 10 years and I feel like there's an uncomfortable tension in the room right now because I should not have worn this dress. So luckily I brought an outfit change. This is the first outfit change on the Ted stage. So you guys are pretty lucky to witness it. I think if some of the women were really horrified when I came out you don't have to tell me now, but I'll find out later on Twitter..

I'd also note that I'm quite privileged to be able to transform what you think of me in a very brief 10 seconds. Not everybody gets to do that..

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

The worst part is putting the sweater over my head because that's when you'll laugh at me. So don't do anything. Well, it's over my head..

All right..

So, why did I do that? That was awkward? Well, hopefully not as awkward as that picture image is powerful..

But also image is superficial..

I just totally transformed what you thought of me in six seconds. And in this picture, I had actually never had a boyfriend in real life. I was totally uncomfortable in the photographer was telling me to Arch my back and put my hand in that guy's hair. And of course barring surgery or the fake tan that I got two days ago for work. There's very little that we can do to transform how we look and how we look though it.

Superficial and immutable has a huge impact on our lives. So today for me being Fearless means being honest and I am on this stage because I'm a model. I'm on this stage because I'm a pretty white woman and my industry we call that a sexy girl and I'm going to answer the questions of people always ask me but with an honest twist. So the first question is, how do you become a model and I always just say, oh I was scouted, but that means nothing..

the real way that I became a model is I want a genetic Lottery and I'm the recipient of a legacy and maybe you're wondering what is a legacy well for the past few centuries, we have defined Beauty not just as health and youth and symmetry that were biologically programmed to admire but also as tall Sunder figures and femininity and white skin and this is a legacy that was built for me and it's a.

See that I've been cashing out on and I know there are people in the audience who are skeptical at this point and maybe there is some fashionistas. We're like wait Naomi Tyra Joan Smalls, Lou went and first I commend you on your model knowledge very impressive. But unfortunately I have to inform you that in 2007 a very inspired and while you PhD student counted all the models on the runway, every single one was hired and of the 677 models that were hired only..

Evan were less than 4% were non-white the next question people always ask me is can I be a model when I grow up and the first answer is I don't know. They don't put me in charge of that but the second answer and what I really want to say to these little girls is why you know, you can be anything you could be the president United States or the inventor of the next internet or a ninja cardiothoracic surgeon poet would be awesome because we the first one if after this amazing list, they still are.

No, no Cameron. I want to be a model. Well, then I say be my boss because I'm not in charge of anything and you could be the editor-in-chief of American Vogue at the CEO of hm, or the next Steven Meisel saying that you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying that you want to win the Powerball when you grow up it's you know out of your control and it's awesome and it's not a career path. I will demonstrate for you now 10 years of accumulated model knowledge because unlike cardiothoracic surgeons. It can just be distilled right into the.

Right now so if the photographer is right there and the light is right there like a nice HMI and the clients was Cameron. We want to walking shot. Well, then this leg goes first nice and long this arm goes back. This arm goes for the head. Is that 3/4 and you just go back and forth just do that. And then you look back at your imaginary friends 300 400 500 times. It will look something like this..

Hopefully less awkward than that one in the middle. That was I don't know what happened there. Unfortunately after you've gone to school and you have a resume and you've done a few jobs, you can't say anything anymore. So if you say you want to be the president of the United States, but your resume reads underwear model 10 years people give you a funny. Look the next question. We always ask me is do they retouch all the photos? And yeah, they pretty much we touch all the photos, but that is only a small component of what's happening. This picture is a very first picture that I ever took and it's also the.

the very first time that I had worn a bikini and I didn't even have my period yet. I know we're getting personal but you know, I was a young girl. This is what I looked like with my grandma just a few months earlier. Here's me on the same day as this you my friend got to come with me. Here's me at a slumber party a few days before I shot French Vogue. Here's me on the soccer team and in V magazine and here's me today and I hope what you're seeing is that these pictures are not pictures of me they are..

Auctions and they are constructions by professionals by hairstylist and makeup artists and photographers and stylists and all of their assistants and pre-production and post-production and they build this that's not me. Okay. So the next question people always ask me is do you get free stuff? I do have too many eight-inch heels, which I never get to wear except for earlier, but the free stuff that I get is the free stuff that I get in real life. And that's what we don't like to talk about I grew up in Cambridge and one time..

Time I went into a store and I forgot my money and they gave me the dress for free when I was a teenager. I was driving with my friend who was an awful driver and she ran a red and of course we got pulled over and all it took was a sorry officer and we were on our way and I got these free things because of how I look not who I am and there are people paying a cost for how they look and not who they are. I live in New York and last year of the 140,000 teenagers that were stopped and frisked 86%.

Of them were black and Latino and most of them were young men and there are only a hundred seventy seven thousand young black and Latino men in New York. So for them, it's not a question of will I get stopped? But how many times will I get stopped? When will I get stopped when I was researching this talk? I found out that of the 13 year old girls United States 53% don't like their bodies and that number goes to 78 percent by the time that they're 17. So the last question people ask me is you know, what is it like to be a model and I think the.

sir that they're looking for is if you are a little bit skinnier and you have shinier hair you will be so happy and fabulous and when we're backstage, we give an answer that maybe makes it seem like that. We say it's really amazing to travel and it's amazing to get to work with creative inspired passionate people and those things are true, but they're only one half of the story because the thing that we never say on camera that I have never said on camera is I am insecure..

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

And if you ever are wondering, you know, if I have thinner thighs and shine your hair will I be happier? You just need to meet a group of models because they have the thinnest eyes and the shiniest hair on the coolest clothes and the most physically insecure women probably on the planet. So when I was writing this talk, I found it very difficult to strike an honest balance because on the one hand I felt very uncomfortable to come out here and say look I've received all these benefits from a deck stacked in my favor and it also felt really.

Uncomfortable to follow that up with and it doesn't always make me happy but mostly it was difficult to unpack a legacy of gender and racial oppression when I'm one of the biggest beneficiaries, but I'm also happy and honored to be up here and I think that it's great. I got to come, you know before ten or Twenty or thirty years had passed and I'd had more agency in my career because maybe then I wouldn't tell the story of how I got my first job, or maybe I wouldn't tell the story of how I paid for college which seems to imply.

Important right now if there's a takeaway to this talk. I hope it's that we all feel more comfortable acknowledging the power of image in our perceived successes and our perceived failures. Thank you..