Heidi Klum Just Broke Down Why She Kept Going After 'Endless Castings' at the Beginning of Her Career

As one of the most successful supermodels in the world, many might be shocked to hear that Heidi Klum actually faced a lot of pushback at the beginning of her career. But, as a new interview of hers shows, Klum had to go against quite a few industry standards before making it big.

In a new interview with Klum for The Times, the German supermodel opened up about how hard it was to move to Paris to pursue modeling after winning a national TV modeling contest in Germany.

“They thought, ‘What is she doing here? She is too healthy and happy.’ I was told I was fat,” Klum remembered of the industry’s reaction. Looking back, Klum knows she was “tiny” back then, “even thinner than now.”

“But the fashion world is obsessed with weight,” she explained.

Luckily, however, the pressure never got to her head. “I heard designers talking about my weight, but I never bought into it,” she said. “I felt if they don’t want me like that, it’s tough. I’d go to the modelling agencies when I started and there would be a scale and they would measure and weigh me. In Paris, they would solemnly say, ‘There are pills you can take.’”

To keep herself grounded, she reminded herself of why she started in the first place. “I thought I won my modeling contest without being super skinny,” she said. “People at home had voted for me, so maybe ordinary people didn’t want what they called ‘heroin chic.'”

But, regardless of her persistence, her first experiences were filled with rejection.

“I went for endless castings,” she remembered. “Only a few asked me to try on their sample clothes and I just didn’t fit into them. I was 90-60-90 [35-24-35]. The clothes would get stuck on my breasts or my hips. Instead, I did a lot of catalogs, which was fine — I made money.”

“I bought my first apartment, my second apartment, a house for my parents, my brother and my grandmother,” she said. “I was making a great living working 200 days a year, but I also love to create. I wanted to be seen as a canvas and used imaginatively rather than wear the same boring outfits for every shoot.”

In 1998, however, Klum was hired for another print job that changed it all: she was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. “The magazine was on the stands, at the dentist, everywhere,” Klum said. “Overnight, I’d walk down the street and people would swivel. Men had tattoos of me on them. It was crazy. At the same time, I became a Victoria’s Secret Angel. The attention became insane, but I wasn’t going to complain.”

Looks like even though it took some tries, it didn’t take too long for the world to see the star power that is Heidi Klum!

Before you go, click here to see kids who are following in their supermodel moms’ footsteps.