Karlie Kloss quit Victoria’s Secret role over ‘wrong message'
Karlie Kloss says she decided to stop being a Victoria’s Secret Angel because the role did not give out “the kind of message I want to send to young women”.
The 26-year-old supermodel was a regular on the Victoria’s Secret fashion show runway from 2011 to 2014, before taking a break and returning to much fanfare in 2017. She was absent for the most recent show in November last year.
She told Vogue: “I decided to stop working with Victoria’s Secret as I didn’t feel it was an image that was truly reflective of who I am and the kind of message I want to send to young women around the world about what it means to be beautiful.
“I think that was a pivotal moment in me stepping into my power as a feminist, being able to make my own choices and my own narrative, whether through the companies I choose to work with, or through the image I put out to the world.”
Kloss added that in her late teens and early twenties “I think I was fearful that I would lose a job or lose my position if I said I didn’t want to do something. But I did not lose out on jobs. If anything, the more I exercised the power of my voice, the more I earned respect from my peers. And I earned more respect for myself.
“Only now do I have the confidence to stand tall — all 6ft 2in of me — and know the power of my voice. I am deeply ambitious and driven, and there are a lot of big things I want to do — big things. But I also want to enjoy the people I love and who love me. It’s important that I have joy in my life”.
Kloss converted to Judaism to marry Joshua Kushner in October. Joshua’s brother is Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and senior adviser of Donald Trump. She said: “It wasn’t enough to just love Josh and make this decision for him. This is my life and I am an independent, strong woman. It was only after many years of studying and talking with my family and friends and soul-searching that I made the decision to fully embrace Judaism in my life and start planning for a future with the man I chose to marry.”
Read the full interview in the August issue of British Vogue, out on Friday.
