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Maddy: How did you get started in the modeling industry?
Natalie: I was studying and acting at New York University, and when I was graduating I needed to get acting head shots. I went to this photographer, and he asked me to do this hair/magazine shoot with him. So I thought, “Great, I’ll do it to make some extra money.” He asked me if I considered modeling, and at that point I had tried, when I was 18 years old, but I was too big for modeling. He then told me about “plus size” modeling, the industry was really small at the time. There was only one agency; it was called “Big Beauties, Little Women”. They handled petite models and plus size models.
I visited the agency and they wanted to work with me, but my look was a little exotic so I did some “testing”. My career really did not take off until I went to Miami and started working there.
Maddy: I know a lot of models go to Miami for “the season”. How did you make the decision to leave NY and take your chances in Miami?
Once “the season” was over, I went back to NY and I did not work at all! I was staying with friends, because I had sublet my apartment and I remember sitting down and realizing my money was running out. I was reading an issue of Vogue Magazine, with Kate Moss on the cover, and at that time the “in” thing was that grunge, emaciated look. I looked at the cover and said, “this is crazy, we should have full representation of women”.
So I sat down and wrote a letter to every fashion magazine editor, put my Ford comp card in the envelope, and sent them out. About two weeks later, Glamour Magazine had made a request for my book from Ford, and not long after I was given a six page spread and interview.
This is when my career took off, and I worked all the time.