Recently, we had the immense pleasure of sitting down with one of the most exciting and promising young models of this most recent generation, Lydia Bielen. Hailing from a small Georgian town, Lydia was propelled to stardom when some L.A. businesspeople scouted her at a local restaurant, and since then she has traveled all over the world for shoots with the biggest fashion magazines on the market.
During our sit down with this wonderful lady, we got into the depth of what it is to be a model, both the good, as well as the nitty-gritty. One thing that radiates immediately from Lydia Bielen is the sheer joy she feels at being a model. Here is a woman charged with gratitude and positive vibes, who’s genuinely happy to be doing what she’s doing.
“Since I started modeling, I’ve been able to travel the world. I’ve been to so many countries I may have never gone to if it weren’t for my job. Between experiencing new places, working from beautiful beaches, meeting tons of amazing creative people, learning a new language, and everyday being a new adventure, traveling is definitely the best part of the modeling industry,” Bielen says, when asked about her favorite aspect of the modeling industry.
Naturally, like any other industry, modeling has been affected by the recent pandemic, and so the chances to travel have been cut down a little. Still, that hasn’t made people like Lydia Bielen lose hope.
Quite the contrary, in fact, with the young model more excited than ever about what the future holds, both on a personal level, as well as a global one. Of course, traveling isn’t the only thing that drew Bielen to the modeling life. There’s a number of great things you get to do, as a model, chief among which is experimenting with different parts of your persona, and discovering who you are, truly.
One thing that Bielen notes is the common misconception that models get to keep the clothes they wear on the catwalk, though.
“People ask me if I get to keep the clothes all the time. While it’s true, sometimes you get to keep something, it’s not like we take home the hundreds of pieces we wear a day in an e-com job for example, or the expensive gowns you see us wearing in editorials. It’s our job just to wear it for photos or videos or whatever, but we don’t keep everything.”
Naturally, as in any field of work, modeling also has its downsides. In our talk, Bielen spoke of the insane pressure on models to look and be a certain way, and how it negatively impacts young women such as herself.
“It puts a lot of pressure on models to meet these impossible standards. I’ve seen a lot of my friends struggle with eating disorders, body dysmorphia, etc. because of the modeling industry. Of course, being healthy and in shape is important, but a lot of people overdo it, or put pressure on models to overdo it, and it’s really sad and needs to change.”
