Miranda Kerr Didn’t Always Find Herself Beautiful

Miranda Kerr

Miranda Kerr remembers her first visit to a Victoria’s Secret store; she was 16, a foreign exchange student living in Virginia. “I was like, ‘Wow! This is like a wonderland. We don’t have anything like that in Australia,’” she recalls to New York magazine.

Several years later, she was blown away by the company again — but this time, it was because she was the first Australian model to get a contract with the brand. “I just remember the first time I met Adriana [Lima], she was so beautiful,” Kerr says. “I was like, ‘Why would they want me? I mean, look at her. She’s incredible.’ And then I met Heidi and Gisele and I was like, ‘What am I doing here?’”

Now one of the company’s most recognisable faces — and the model who has the honor of wearing the $2.5-million “Fantasy Treasure Bra” in tonight’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show — Kerr is more confident about her place in the fashion world.

Miranda Kerr models the $2.5 million 'Fantasy Treasure Bra' during the 2011 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

“I always see myself as, like, equal to everyone,” she says of her fellow models. “I can’t feel bad about being who I am, just like the girl next to me can’t feel bad about being who she is. A rose can never be a sunflower, and a sunflower can never be a rose.”

In fact, Kerr hopes her attitude toward beauty resonates with her fans. “All flowers are beautiful in their own way, and that’s like women too,” she shares. “I want to encourage women to embrace their own uniqueness.”