Former Model Shares Dark Side of Glamorous Life - Nicole Weider. Shallom,
Nicole Weider had one of two things in her life. When she was younger she wanted to make it into show business. In second after she attained success she wanted to make it out.
Nicole Wieder was just a young girl when she started following her dream of becoming a star. At 16 she moved to Hollywood and was soon appearing in some of America's top magazines. After eight years of modeling Nicole had seen too many lives destroyed by the cutthroat industry and thought hers could be next.
Host: Nicole Weider is here with us now. Nicole, thanks for being with us. It's good to see you again.
Nicole: Thank you so much for having me.
Host: Well, in your book you talk about when you were a teenager and you first started getting into modeling. It is so vulnerable and you didn't even realize at the time that they were sort of making you into a sex object. Tell us what happened.
Nicole: So as soon as I turned 14, believe it or not, and I got my braces off and they started marketing as you know a sexy woman. And growing up I was always, you know, I felt awkward about my body. I was very tall and skinny, but as soon as I hit middle school, I actually kind of I guess you could say blossomed. And I was 5-10 in middle school and so you know my agent was marketing as older than I was.
And my first big job was modeling for the radio station z100 and I was in a big billboard on the freeway. And at first I was so excited, but then I was looking at it in the the main slogan was, 'There's no bad date a good song can't cure.'
So insinuating I was going on a date and then I was listening to the radio, but I was only 14 years old and so I should have took that as a warning sign, but I didn't. And I was like, you know, what I did this big job. I want to move down to LA and see if I can make it, you know, in the big time and so.
Then I moved to LA when I was only 16 and siding with my modeling agent and then it kind of all went I guess you could say downhill from there.
Host: Well, you say that you would often leave a photo shoot and feel like you were stripped of your of your dignity, um, yeah tell us about that.
Nicole: So like I said I was always kind of curvy. I mean I was ever thin enough to do high fashion and I wasn't sure about that. But my agent she was booking me for lingerie work and swimsuit catalogs. And um on set I mean I thought it would be some glamorous experience where I was having fun.
And I was so excited to book these jobs but then when I was on set wearing just a bra and underwear, I felt completely humiliated and degraded, because here I was on set with all of these guys and all of these people, you know, fixing my bra and my underwear. And it made me feel really ashamed of that.
Host: You were telling like pull it down and do other things, that was ...
Nicole: Exactly and when I was shooting with some photographers they were always telling me, 'Okay, we're a shear shirt or cover up your, you know, your chest with just your hands.' And it was always they were always pushing me to take more and more often. So I felt completely degraded and humiliated.
Host: And you did some work with some big names though um Victoria's Secret a little bit um and some other big names. What was the turning point for you when you finally just said I've got to get out?
Nicole: You know I would say it was probably when I posed for Maxim magazine. It was a culmination of just a series of different jobs that really push the envelope for me but Maxim. And when I was a body double for Victoria's Secret those were my last jobs where I was like I've had enough. I don't want anything to do with this modeling industry anymore, because I saw my pictures on the internet and they ended up on just some different, you know, men's - you know - porn sites and it was just disgusting. And I was like I don't ...
Host: Cover for Maxim?
Nicole: Yeah I wasn't on the cover but I was in the magazine in an editorial um but the in the Internet had all of my pictures on there and again I was just wearing a bra and underwear and here these pictures were. And I couldn't take them back. I was a shame.
Host: Were you a believer during this time?
Nicole: No not at all. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I didn't really have a concept of who God was. I didn't have gone in my life at all and so I was making my choices based on you know what I wanted in the world and what I thought was important for myself. And I placed my identity in being a model and so when I decided I didn't want that anymore I was kind of left thinking what am I supposed to do now.
Host: And you journalling tell us about that.
Nicole: Um well when I gave my life to Christ I was 23 and this was in 2009 so it's not even that long ago and it was the best decision I ever made. And after I gave my life to God I felt a renewed sense of hope and I felt like my dignity was back, you know, back in my heart and I started journaling about my love for God and my experiences in the modeling industry.
And pretty soon after I gave my life to God, He put in my heart a desire to create a website for teenage girls to share pieces of my testimony on there and to be a light to girls and to warn them about the dangers of the Hollywood industry and about the modeling industry.
And so I started journaling my experiences in Hollywood and God placed the desire in my heart to share my experiences.
Host: And that website and I call it project inspired.
Nicole: yeah.
Host: Which is also the title of your book and it is an online community for girls. And what are some of the issues that girls are dealing with these days?
Nicole: Girls ... teenage girls, I really believe they're in a special time in their life because they're in such a transition between, you know, obviously just being a girl and then transitioning into adulthood. And the reason why God put it on my heart to reach out to teen girls is because when I was a teenager that's when I really started to go downhill and I didn't have a force of a positive role model in my life and so I didn't know where to turn.
And so I feel like teenage girls are really in a really susceptible time in their life and so I wanted to help the teenage girls with the transitions that they're going through, through high school and boys. And so my site covers everything from you know purity and why it's cool to you know be a virgin before you get married. And I make Christianity cool if that makes sense.
Host: Yeah and I really appreciate when my book came out you are price to be one you hooked me up with a Skype or a live skype with your girls and they asked me questions and I mean you've got thousands and thousands of girls that are involved with project inspired.
Nicole: Yes I do it's amazing because this dream the small dream of my heart when I first started I had no idea that it would blossom into the site that it is today. And now we get over 650,000 visitors every month coming to the site.
Host: On your website and of course follow you on twitter and you always have great tweets and also of facebook. So yeah there's a lot of ways to get involved with project inspire. You talk about living a project inspire drive. What does that mean?
Nicole: So I like to say a project inspired life is a woman who is confident in who she is who God made her to be a woman who uses her gifts to glorify God in whatever she chooses to do. And in my book I talk about the different spiritual gifts, because we all have some. And I also talk about, you know, praying for your enemies instead of you know trying to get back at them. And becoming a light to non-believers and so I believe being a project inspired girl encompasses all of these different aspects.
Host: And I have to mention that you are ... you got married a few years ago and now have a beautiful baby boy. What is his name?
Nicole: His name is Elijah Benjamin.
Host: He's so adorable. I see tons of pictures of him on Facebook, there he is. He's actually a little bit older than that now. But anyway Nicole, it's so good to see you again and for more with Nicole.
You can get her book it's called, 'Project inspired.' It contains everything from her personal story to tips on finding the perfect pair of jeans, that's important. And then you can get it wherever books are sold.
Nicole god bless you and thanks so much for being here bless you. Thank you.
Nicole: Thank you.
Source:
--- That is Nicole's Testimony ...
- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. - (2 Corinthians 5:17).
- “I Can Do All Things Through Christ Who Strengthens Me.”- (Philippians 4:13).
- Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. - (John 14:6).
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