Nicole Weider was on top of the world at age 17 when she became a successful model, but within six years, her “dream come true” turned into a nightmare that only ended when she gave her life to Christ.
According to the Christian Post, Weider’s fast-track to success started when she relocated to Los Angeles and landed a job in the modeling industry. She was soon walking the catwalk and doing fashion shoots with leading lingerie retailer, Victoria Secret. But as the months and years passed, she began to see a side of the industry that was far from glamorous. Instead, it was dark and destructive. By the age of 23, she was steeped in a deep depression.
” . . . I saw it all,” Weider told the Post. “I saw many celebrities in front of me doing drugs, I saw models that I work with starving themselves, anything you can imagine I saw up close and personal.”
She was also subjected to cricitism about how she was too curvy, her hips were too wide and playing volleyball had made her legs too muscular. The constant drumbeat to “lose weight – you’re too heavy” began to slowly wear away her self-esteem, but it only made her more obsessed with “making it” in the modeling world.
And then one day everything changed. It was during a photo shoot when a photographer’s assistant invited her to see the kind of airbrushing and photo-shopping that went on behind the scenes.
” . . . [H]e was showing me how he was photoshopping the pictures in real time and I was completely blown away because here in front of me was all these beautiful supermodels (they were gorgeous) and then here he was retouching all the pictures and I couldn’t believe it,” she said.
On her wedding day
“… It was really heavily retouched, he made her neck longer and one of the models had a lot of freckles [so] he was getting rid of them and it just completely changed my perspective on the whole modeling industry, so that was a really eye-opening experience.”
Watching models be made into people that didn’t even look like them became a turning point in her life. Already in a state of depression, she knew she couldn’t go on. She quit the industry and moved back home with her mother.
It was a dark time in her life, but she’s grateful now for how it challenged her to grow in her faith, and as a woman.
“I’m so fortunate that these circumstances happened in my life because through those challenges and setbacks, I discovered that modeling wasn’t what God called me to do and I realized that I could use my experience to ultimately bring God glory,” she shared. “And so I was struggling through this modeling industry and thankfully my friend told me about God and His gift of salvation and how I could turn my life over for him and so I kind of gave my life to God and so that was one of the reasons that I left that industry.”
From the very beginning of her new life in Christ, she felt a call to reach out to teen girls.
“When I first gave my life to God, He put in my heart that I needed to share my story with as many people as possible and I really felt God was calling me to share my story with teenage girls specifically because it was during my teen years that I started to go down the wrong path,” she said.
As a result, she founded the popular Christian teen lifestyle website, projectinspired.com, in 2010.
Now married and the mother of one, she has just released a book entitled, Project Inspired: Tips and Tricks for Staying True to Who You Are, which is designed to help girls embrace their true identity through modesty and Christian values.
Weider, now a married mother of one, further details her journey in her newly released book Project Inspired: Tips and Tricks for Staying True to Who You Are, which she said is designed to help young girls embrace their true identity through modesty and solid Christian values.
“I just pray that through this book they can find their calling and their passion because when you find your passion and what you’re meant to do on earth, you have an opportunity to inspire hundreds if not thousands of people.”
Weider says she has no regrets about having worked in the industry because it led her to find God and her true purpose in life.
Now she’s all about winning more souls for Christ.
“I want readers to have a fresh perspective on life and know that God is amazing and it’s cool to follow God!”
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