Gorgeous Size-2 Model Told She's 'Too Big' for the Industry, Last week, 19-year-old Swedish model Agnes Hedengård sat down to make a video. She didn't know exactly what the video would be about, but she found herself suddenly having a lot to say about the impossible body standards in the fashion industry. She posted the video, which she made in Swedish, to her personal Facebook page, and it went viral in Scandinavia immediately. So Agnes made another version of the video in English, called "Too Big for the Industry," and it also went viral. Since it got posted last week, it has been viewed over 3 million times.
Speaking into a full-length mirror and wearing only underwear to show off her slender frame, Agnes — who weighs 123 pounds, is 5 feet 9 inches tall, and loves eating pizza and Nutella — demonstrated how warped the body standards for models can be. She spoke to Cosmopolitan.com about the response she's gotten and what's next for her. What has the response been like for you since you posted your videos? I didn't expect it, but it's crazy. When I first posted the Swedish version, I thought I would get a like from my parents or friends. When I woke up the next day, I had hundreds of new messages and every Swedish newspaper was calling me nonstop for an interview. The response in Sweden and Denmark and Norway was very positive. Mothers were telling me I was an inspiration for their daughters. Older people thought I was a young girl who stood up for herself.
I did the English one because I thought maybe the whole world would feel the same way as people did in Scandinavia. I posted it to YouTube and hoped for the best. When I woke up the next day, it had 100,000 views.
What prompted you to make the video in the first place? I was first scouted when I was 15. My body hadn't achieved puberty. I didn't have boobs, I didn't have curves. I was just flat all over. [Laughs.] A few years later, I got the curves — not much, but I got them, because that's the female body. That's when the clients and foreign agencies started saying that I needed to get in better shape. I didn't care so much at first because I was focused on school. I went to the gym sometimes but ate whatever I wanted.
Then I graduated last year and wanted to give modeling a shot, full-time. I moved to Stockholm from the small town where I grew up and I told myself that I would give the modeling one year. I would be very dedicated to it and see where it goes. I was like, I will do whatever the agency tells me to do. When they told me that the clients said I was too big, I was like, I will fix that. I will not eat. I will diet. I will train. But when you put so much pressure on yourself, when people keep telling you that you're too big when you're not too big — I took it to the extreme. "I ate this cinnamon roll. I can't eat any more today." You want to get there so fast that it ends up destroying your body. I didn't see it but my friends did. They said, "Agnes, this is not OK. You're going to become an anorexic." I was like, "No, no, it's cool." But at some point, I understood. I hated life. I got so depressed. I was weak. I didn't see any light in it.
Speaking into a full-length mirror and wearing only underwear to show off her slender frame, Agnes — who weighs 123 pounds, is 5 feet 9 inches tall, and loves eating pizza and Nutella — demonstrated how warped the body standards for models can be. She spoke to Cosmopolitan.com about the response she's gotten and what's next for her. What has the response been like for you since you posted your videos? I didn't expect it, but it's crazy. When I first posted the Swedish version, I thought I would get a like from my parents or friends. When I woke up the next day, I had hundreds of new messages and every Swedish newspaper was calling me nonstop for an interview. The response in Sweden and Denmark and Norway was very positive. Mothers were telling me I was an inspiration for their daughters. Older people thought I was a young girl who stood up for herself.
I did the English one because I thought maybe the whole world would feel the same way as people did in Scandinavia. I posted it to YouTube and hoped for the best. When I woke up the next day, it had 100,000 views.
What prompted you to make the video in the first place? I was first scouted when I was 15. My body hadn't achieved puberty. I didn't have boobs, I didn't have curves. I was just flat all over. [Laughs.] A few years later, I got the curves — not much, but I got them, because that's the female body. That's when the clients and foreign agencies started saying that I needed to get in better shape. I didn't care so much at first because I was focused on school. I went to the gym sometimes but ate whatever I wanted.
Then I graduated last year and wanted to give modeling a shot, full-time. I moved to Stockholm from the small town where I grew up and I told myself that I would give the modeling one year. I would be very dedicated to it and see where it goes. I was like, I will do whatever the agency tells me to do. When they told me that the clients said I was too big, I was like, I will fix that. I will not eat. I will diet. I will train. But when you put so much pressure on yourself, when people keep telling you that you're too big when you're not too big — I took it to the extreme. "I ate this cinnamon roll. I can't eat any more today." You want to get there so fast that it ends up destroying your body. I didn't see it but my friends did. They said, "Agnes, this is not OK. You're going to become an anorexic." I was like, "No, no, it's cool." But at some point, I understood. I hated life. I got so depressed. I was weak. I didn't see any light in it.
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