Everyone has a different body shape, so you kind of have to figure out not only what works best for your body type, but what also makes you feel confident. Even if everyone thinks you look good in a bikini, and you don't feel good in it, you're not going to be at your best. If you feel great in a bikini, you can always work it.
It's really about making opportunities for yourself and connecting with people on a more-than-normal level. That opens doors. You never know if the caterer's brother is someone. You don't know who someone is having dinner with that night. So being a nice person and touching people creates opportunity.
As for middle school, I had a really horrible era of style. I'd only play basketball with the boys during lunch, so I went through a phase of only wearing Lakers uniforms to school - that was cute! And then I kind of went through the Puma phase that everyone went through with the sweatsuits, which turned into Juicy Couture sweatsuits.
I was discovered by Paul Marciano of Guess when I was actually, like, two years old. And so I started with Baby Guess; I did Guess Kids, and then I stopped because I was a really competitive horseback rider and a club volleyball player. I went to Junior Olympic qualifiers for volleyball. So, I kind of stopped modeling.
My sister is my little star, and I'm excited for her and proud of her. With her, I'm protective, but also I don't want to be that sister who's really pushy and thinks they know everything and making her feel like she doesn't know what she's doing. I'm trying to be that cool older sister and not the mom, but it's hard.
We get to live in a time that we get to use social media as a tool. It's not just a face on a piece of paper, and that's what makes you someone's favorite model. We can have a very similar sense of humor as someone, and that's why we're their favorite model, or our personal style, off the runway, is why we're their favorite.
I'm from Malibu, California. Once I tell people, they're like, 'Oh, of course you're from Malibu; that makes sense.' I guess I am your typical just-graduated-high-school-in-Malibu type of girl. Our school was just across from Zuma beach, and we all wore Lululemons and bathing suit tops to go to the grocery store - no makeup, no shoes.
When I was young, I did Baby Guess and Guess Kids - Paul Marciano saw me when I was a baby and decided I was going to be his next whatever. After Guess Kids, my mom made me stop. She would not let me sign with an agency until I was 17 because she wanted me to be a normal kid and accept myself for who I was.
Once you just tell yourself, 'OK, I'm going to have a breakdown right now, and I'm going to cry for an hour, put my phone away. I'm going to go swimming, and then I'm gonna make my family dinner and lay on the couch and watch 'Ru Paul's Drag Race,' once you accept that it's not the day and you can just have a breakdown, you're over it.
I've always said that I feel lucky to live in the era of social media and be a working model in this time. Back in the day, models were just another face. But social media has given people a voice and not just another face. Not only can you show the world your personality and stuff like that, but you can be a brand ambassador easily.
I usually stalk fans because I think they're really funny on Twitter. They don't know it, but I'll just go through their timelines, and if something is happening in the media, I always read fan accounts instead of the news because they have all the info and make the funniest jokes about it, so that's how I get my gossip - by stalking fans.
My Pirelli calendar is hanging on the wall of my friend's frat house, and he doesn't know anything about fashion. That balance is what leads to big campaigns outside of fashion. But I never want to choose one or the other. Both commercial and high fashion are what make my job so interesting.
Fashion is really a place where every other industry connects, whether it's music or acting. At the end of the day, everyone is going to walk the red carpet and be interested in the fashion side of it. I think that's really cool because as a model, you get to connect with a lot of different worlds.