Model Iskra Lawrence has revealed she was dropped from her first modelling agency at just 15 for being ‘too curvy’ in a new Daily Mail podcast.
Speaking to columnist Bryony Gordon, Iskra, 34, said being let go at such a young age contributed to her developing an eating disorder during her teenage years.
The British model, raised in Kidderminster, became a global body positivity icon in 2014 after fronting Aerie’s #AerieREAL campaign, which pioneered unretouched lingerie advertising.
Despite starting her career at just 12, Iskra didn’t make her runway debut until New York Fashion Week in 2016 – a full 13 years after being first scouted.
She told The Life of Bryony podcast how hitting puberty derailed her early career, with agencies telling her that her curves no longer ‘fit the mould’.
Iskra recounted: ‘I entered Search for a Supermodel when I was 12… I got through to the finals. I didn’t win but I got scouted.
Model Iskra Lawrence has revealed she was dropped from her first modelling agency at just 15 for being ‘too curvy’
Iskra (pictured in 2025) became a global body positivity icon in 2014 after fronting Aerie’s #AerieREAL campaign, which pioneered unretouched lingerie advertising
‘What people don’t realise about that world is – because you’re not necessarily everything they want you to be, they try to mold you really young.
‘When I hit puberty and got my hips and boobs and bum, I then didn’t fit the mold they were hoping I would fit into.
‘They kept telling me, you’re going to have to lose weight, or you’re too commercial, you’re too curvy.
‘I felt like I’d done it – I was going to be a model. Then it all just started crumbling when I started looking around and realising, I am getting more and more curvy.
‘My body was developing, I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t look like the other girls on the runways, the clothes started to stop fitting.
‘Basically, at about 15, they dropped me. They said to me, we don’t think this is going to work – here’s a list of ten other agencies.
‘I went to all 10, they all rejected me. Some of them had pieces of paper where they would rate you out of ten, for teeth, for skin, for your walk.
‘I never thought I needed braces until I got told my teeth were a 6… I didn’t know that was even an issue.’
Now a mother of two, Iskra has pivoted from modeling to entrepreneurship, launching body care brand Saltair with a mission to make women feel ‘enough’ rather than insecure.
The brand is born from painful personal experience. Iskra revealed how being dropped by agencies as a teenager plunged her into years of disordered eating, fueled by the ‘fatphobic’ culture of the fashion world.
Iskra described her life now as her ‘juicy’ era, content in the knowledge that her level of success is no longer dictated by the size of her body
Now a mother of two, Iskra has pivoted from modeling to entrepreneurship, launching body care brand Saltair with a mission to make women feel ‘enough’ rather than insecure
She said: ‘The control over young people, to literally dictate how they feel about themselves… like you have to be this size or you will not get to do the career you want.
‘I remember looking at my body and thinking: I have got to fix this… I’ll stop eating.
‘I had an eating disorder and body dysmorphia, that was only because of the fashion industry.
‘I was directly told, if I didn’t fit these parameters, I wouldn’t make it. I wanted to do it, so I did everything in my power that I could.
‘I absolutely looked at food as either good and bad – I felt guilty for eating this and that.
‘I wasn’t born with that, my parents didn’t teach it to me. It was just so in our community and society at that time, you couldn’t escape it.’
Iskra described her life now as her ‘juicy’ era, content in the knowledge that her level of success is no longer dictated by the size of her body.
‘I am happier now’, Iskra revealed.
‘I am in my juicy phase of life. I am bursting with love and gratitude and my body is bigger than it’s ever been.
‘You can be more successful than you’ve ever been, more in love, and have it in a larger body.
‘My level of success is not dictated by my body at all.’
To hear the full interview with Iskra Lawrence, where she discusses being let go by Aerie after having a baby, search for The Life of Bryony, wherever you get your podcasts.
