On the other side of the runway: Model discusses the impossible pursuit of perfection

Last year, senior Danielle Henao took a deep breath and prepared to step out onto the runway in San Francisco. She could see the blinding camera lights flashing incessantly even from behind the curtains as she checked one last time in the mirror to make sure her professional makeup, blonde hair and short, tight dress were perfect. She was the last model to perform at Bay Area fashion week, an annual event that stretches from October to November, and a huge honor. It had to be perfect.  

While modeling may seem like a magical and glorious profession, Henao said that it can also be an extremely demanding job.

“There were a lot of people crying [at fashion week] because modeling will break you if you’re not strong enough,” Henao said.

Henao has been modeling since age six, when she began her modeling career in her home country of Columbia. When she moved to the United States at the beginning of her sophomore year, she joined the Barbizon school of modeling in San Francisco, where she got the contacts of photographers and fashion designers.

“The modeling community in the Bay Area is really small, so everyone knows each other and everyone knows who you are,” Henao said. “I was the shortest and the fattest one at the castings, but they liked me because I was foreign and brought something new and different.”

Henao said that models often face harsh stereotypes.

“People don’t think that I’m smart or that I can get good grades. They just think that I care about how I look,” Henao said. “And that’s really hard sometimes.”

Another downside is the competition among models. According to Henao, some of the girls who model with her can be spiteful or unpleasant.

“There’s a lot of pressure to be perfect because you’re competing against a lot of girls who want to be in your place,” Henao said. “There is pressure to have perfect skin and a perfect body when you’re in this kind of industry.”

The fashion industry has created a cookie-cutter vision of the perfect look, causing models to have to go to extreme measures to fit the mold. Despite feelings of inadequacy at times, Henao believes that it is worth it. 

“Even though I am a size 2, I’m still considered fat. I’m 5’7,” and I’m short,” Henao said. “So it’s true that you have a lot of pressure at times, but if you enjoy it, it’s worth it.”

 Henao added that while fashion designers in the industry can corrupt a model’s mindset, models should try to remain true to themselves.

“I get that the industry wants us to see beauty a different way, but I believe that we should see beauty as it is,” Henao said. “We shouldn’t have to change the way we look and who we are.” 

She remembers the time a few years ago when she missed a month of school because she was modeling in a photoshoot and struggled to catch up.

Henao said that it was hard to raise her grades and make up the work she missed.

As for her future in modeling, she said, “It’s something I don’t want to do for the rest of my life, but it is really fun.”

Although Henao said that she is not planning a career in modeling, she said that for the time being, modeling remains exciting. 

“Being on the runway is an amazing feeling, like being on top of the world, and it’s the reason I model,” Henao said. “I get nervous when I am the first model to get on the runway because everyone is watching you, but once you start walking, you’re no longer nervous.”