A plus size model has hit out at haters who brand her 'ugly'.
Danielle Gardiner says she's certainly having the last laugh, as she's earning a cool £10,000 a month from her curves.
In fact, she says she doesn't think she'd earn anywhere near enough money if she was skinny.
Danielle, 33, who is single and lives with kids Noah, ten, and Leah, four, adores her curvy figure as says it allows her to model for big-name brands such as Nike and PrettyLittleThing.
Talking to Fabulous, she said: “I get paid a fortune for being fat and I wouldn’t be modelling, or have 128,000 followers on Instagram, if I was slim. There are so many skinny models, I just wouldn’t have stood out.
“I charge around £650 for a modelling shoot and usually do around two a week.
“When I’ve modelled a bikini and shared photos on social media people have commented that I shouldn’t be wearing that for my size because I’m not ‘little or pretty’.
"I’ve been called a man, and told that I’m too fat to be modelling — all sorts.
“I couldn’t care less because my size is what makes me successful. I would never have made it as a model when I was a size 10."
Danielle, from Hornchurch, Essex, says she can earn unto £10,000 on a good month from influencing alone, alongside modelling jobs which bring in, on average, £15,000 a year on top of that.
The body positive beauty is also an ambassador for Models of Diversity, which is a charity campaigning for a wider variety of models in the industry.
Talking about her influencing, Danielle says she gets sent up to 40 products a week including clothes, gym wear and handbags, which she posts on Instagram.
For this, she gets between £350 and £550 per post, and £350 for a three-slide story.
Danielle says used to be a size 10/12 in her teen years and twenties, but had zero confidence back in those days.
She also admits that when she joined the police force aged 19 as a detention officer, the pressure to stay slim was 'over-whelming'.
"I knew I had to stay fit, as my job was so physical, and I was scared of putting on weight and having to ask for a bigger uniform," she confessed.
Danielle admits she spent years 'trying to be thin' but 'hated' herself for it.
Aged 21, she was a size 14, but thought she looked 'massive'.
However, when she fell pregnant at 22, she suffered terrible morning sickness and lost three and a half stone – taking her down to a size 10.
Although people told her she looked 'amazing', the model said she felt awful and 'more miserable' than ever.
After the birth, Danielle started putting weight on again and was a size 14/16.
Then within a few years, she was up to a size 20.
She admits her confidence was 'rock bottom' after years of trying to be thin.
However, when her son, Noah, was five, she spotted an advert on Facebook for a body confidence workshop run by Miss Curvaceous UK — a plus-size model management company — and decided to apply.
She said the workshop taught her to love herself for her and not how she looked.
At the end of the workshop, she entered a competition to be Miss Curvaceous UK, and started posting pictures of herself posing in underwear on Instagram.
She found this 'empowering' and as she gained more followers, Danielle was approached by brands including Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing and Missguided.
And the plus size star hasn't looked back since!
Get all the biggest Lifestyle news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the free Daily Star Hot Topics newsletter
Source: Read Full Article
