“I Won the Genetic Lottery,” Says Victoria’s Secret Model Cameron Russell

Cameron Russell is one of the most popular Angels now working for Victoria’s Secret but, as of late, she’s also a rather controversial figure for a TED speech she gave last October, which was posted online last month – and has gone viral since.

She’s undeniably beautiful but Cameron is also educated (she studied economics and political science at Columbia University) and intelligent.

She believes society places too much value on looks and says that, just because she won the genetic lottery, she shouldn’t be held too high, which is precisely what is happening.

Below, embedded at the end of this article, are two videos: the first one is the TED talk she gave. The second is an interview with ABC’s Good Morning America, in which she explains how she came to make the statement of “winning the genetic lottery.”

Modeling isn’t a “career path,” she tells GMA. Girls should not aspire to be models, they should aspire to be model citizens, to have a career they love and can feel proud of, like an engineer or even a politician.

Because of her looks, Cameron says, she’s getting more attention and more credit than she should because the fashion industry and the people always keeping an eye on it act as if she did something to deserve all this, when she was simply born this way.

“Saying that you want to be a model when you grow up is akin to saying that you want to win the Powerball when you grow up,” she says in her TED speech.

Though she’s dealing a severe blow to the fashion / modeling industry that’s currently paying her bills, Russell insists she’s only trying to make a point: society needs to look for the beauty and the worth within as well, and stop obsessing with appearances.