Nina Agdal Slammed Body Shaming in Fashion—and It Landed Her a Major Campaign

In January Nina Agdal, a model who’s worked for the likes of Sports Illustrated and Victoria’s Secret, posted an image of herself from a magazine—except, instead of it being a celebratory post announcing her latest booking, it was her thoughts about the body shaming she says exists in the fashion industry.

Agdal’s shoot had been cut from the unnamed publication, she was told, because her look “deviated from my portfolio and that I did not fit into the (sample size) samples.” But she wasn’t going to just take it: “I decided to release an image to draw awareness and support of an issue that’s bigger than just myself and affects so many people not just in the fashion industry, but in general, with the goal of bringing women from all over together in a celebration of our bodies,” she captioned the photo. “Let’s find ways to build each other up instead of constantly finding ways to tear each other down.”

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“I was 25 years old, and I had gone through many years of building up this stress and these insecurities,” Agdal tells Glamour of what led her to get so candid with her millions of Instagram followers. For a whole year, she remembers, she felt “paralyzed” by a fear of other people’s opinions: “It was getting to a point where I was afraid to walk into an event or a party or a meeting because I was so afraid of being judged. That got in my head. In my particular position, it was a lot of pressure because of my job, but every girl out there goes through [it].” She worked on herself, and finally felt she was in a good place. So she posted.

In the months since, she’s pledged to keep promoting body positivity, both through her platform and through the jobs she books. “I feel a responsibility, since I’m one of the girls in the ads, in the magazines, in the commercials,” she says. And her first big gig of 2018 reflects that: Agdal is the new face of Aerie’s unretouched #AerieReal campaign.

This is a bit of a homecoming for the Danish model: She worked with Aerie years ago, before it swore off airbrushing its models back in 2014. A few years later Agdal returns to the American Eagle Outfitters–owned innerwear brand, starring in its latest swimwear lookbook.

“The conversation happened naturally after my post about my experience with body shaming,” Agdal tells us. Shortly after she shared her story, the Aerie team got in touch and invited her to a dinner to celebrate its #AerieReal Role Models. “It was like walking into a family—I met Iskra [Lawrence], Yara [Shahidi], the new Aerie Real campaign girls. I started talking to everyone, and it made sense for me to come back [to Aerie] after everything that I’ve gone through.”

Agdal’s approach to choosing gigs has changed slightly since her Instagram post, she says: She’s seeking out clients and work that are aligned with a message of body positivity. “I’m not just going to do swimsuit clients where there’s a lot of retouching,” she explains. “I thought [this campaign] would be perfect for me to put myself out there again and show people who I really am.”

This is the first shoot Agdal’s been a part of that she know wouldn’t have any retouching, she tells Glamour—and for someone who’s been modeling since her teens, that switch can be quite jarring. “I’m so used to the images being retouched—on a shoot, there’s always that comment of ‘Oh, we can just retouch that,’ that’s always been a thing,” she explains. “I’ve never had to worry about a birthmark, cellulite, or whatever it is.” This Aerie campaign wouldn’t have any of that, and she admits that, when the images finally came in, “it took me a second—I had to sit down and be like, ‘This is what you should be doing.'”

“I looked at these pictures, and that is me—that’s what I look like,” Agdal continues. “I’m finally in a place where I can look at them and be like: You know what? You are good enough. You look great. There’s no reason for you to put yourself down all the time.”

Looking forward, Agdal sees herself as a change agent within the industry, through the choices she makes professionally. “It’s all baby steps…like, I will not do jobs where I know that I’m going be completely retouched, or where I know there [will] be body shaming,” she says. She’s participated in panels and roundtables—most recently, with WWD through her agency, Elite Model Management.

“Moving forward, everything I do has to speak to me,” she continues. “Obviously, we all have to pay rent, so there are certain jobs that you just can’t turn down—I’m just like everyone else. But I would like for every single one to at least speak to me, because after my message, I just can’t stand up for bullshit and for this unrealistic illusion of the world and of me.”

Almost three months after she shared her now famous Instagram, Agdal hopes that more people look at that post and feel like they can speak frankly about beauty ideals. “Up until I said something [on Instagram], I really haven’t opened up to anyone about my struggles or insecurities,” she says. “Now, just walking down the street, girls and parents come up to me and are like, ‘Thank you for sharing that.’ That’s what really matters to me—like, I was a little girl looking at the supermodels and [thinking] that’s what I wanted to be. There was nothing else—that was what you had to look like. I’m just hoping that for the future little girls out there, they can see that there’s a change, and it’s OK to be who you are.”