Gisele Bündchen is arguably one of the world's top supermodels. But the recognizable face has recently revealed that she never felt comfortable in the fashion scene despite what her image as a successful model may project.
“I’m not a model,” Bündchen told Vogue magazine in a new interview. “Modeling is a job that I do, a career that I’ve had. It allowed me to see the world, and I was well paid for it. But it never defined me.”
The iconic model broke onto the fashion scene in late '90s after fashion designer Alexander McQueen cast her in his spring-summer 1998 show. Following her big runway debut, Bündchen quickly became a fashion "it girl." The following year, the rising star landed her first U.S. Vogue cover and by 2000, she opened Fashion Week shows for designers such as Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, Dolce & Gabbana and Christian Dior. But the model said that she never got used to all of the attention.
“I’m a Cancer," she explained. "The little crab. Loves the home, her sanctuary, all the cozy things. So I was a fish out of water in fashion. I was always like, 'Let me go to the job and go home.'”
The 38-year-old went on to explain that she has always been more of a homebody and was not into the glitzy, celebrity party scene.
“I was watching all the chaos but never getting that close,” she recalled. “Drugs. Girls coming and going, some making it, some heading down a bad path and going home. I was never a party girl. You can’t be reading Lao Tzu and partying. The environment I was living in wasn’t matching the things I was interested in. I was wondering, How is it that we’re all floating on this blue dot in space? I’ve always been a curious person, and I’ve always asked the big questions. What else? What more? This can’t be all there is.”
The mother of two also talked about how she struggles to keep up with times saying that things like social media are not her strong suit and that her younger sister was the creator of her Instagram account.
“If it was me, it would only be pictures of sunsets,” she said. “It’s not my generation — I have to be honest about that. I’m older, wiser. If I had to promote myself in the way girls modeling now have to do, forget it. I wouldn’t do it."
The star later clarified her remarks on social media and younger mondels in an apology on Twitter.
"My intention was simply to express that I come from an older generation and am not echnologically savvy," she said.
Now, in addition to being a mom and supporting her New England Patriots hubby, Tom Brady, Bündchen has remained focused on her passion of saving the environment. The model has worked as a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations Environment Programme since 2009 and was recently honored by Harvard Medical School with its Global Environmental Citizen Award.
“People forget that without a healthy environment, there are no healthy humans, because last time I checked, our life depends on the health of our planet, period," she explained. "At the end of the day, the Earth will be fine. If we are gone, she’s going to regenerate herself. So we have to think about how we’re going to survive on it. How can we have the least impact?”