Emily Atack Quotes

I work in an industry where everyone is flawlessly beautiful, but I just want to be healthy.

I was told I was fat in the modeling world, and a director on a shoot told me I needed to lose weight. The J-Lo booty wasn't popular then, and I wanted to be the perfect Hollywood girl - tall, blonde and skinny. I couldn't do the 'tall' because I was 5'2, and I couldn't do the skinny, either.

When I got my headshots done, there was this woman screaming at me to blow my lips out. She kept saying, 'You want to be like Scarlett Johansson, don't you?' In the shot, my eyes are popping out; I look terrified. I realised I'd rather not get a job than go through pain to be something I'm not.

Plastic surgery and breast implants are fine for people who want that, if it makes them feel better about who they are. But, it makes these people, actors especially, fantasy figures for a fantasy world. Acting is about being real being honest.

Isn't it incredible how, you know, people have to fight to look like themselves. It's so crazy to me.

I think that we could be more careful about what we're saying to young women in terms of their expectations. It's unrealistic to expect people to always be in designer clothes. Girls growing up deserve more freedom in how they look and how they feel about how they look.

I don't believe in doing things to manufacture my body to appeal to what I think people might like.

I'm just who I am. I don't try to change myself for other people.

The pressure to be pretty? I set, you know, boundaries and goals for myself. I try not to compare myself to anyone else because I will never be anyone else except myself. So I try and stay true to me, and hopefully the right projects will come my way.

There are so many images pushed at women and so many ideas of what you're supposed to be. I think there's too much of this superwoman, this woman with a bottom like two billiard balls. There's no real celebration of just being a person.

I've never pretended to be a supermodel.

What's the greater risk? Letting go of what people think - or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

But I've really learned you don't have to fit in. No matter where you go, you're always going to be you and if they don't like you for who you are, then what's the point of being someone else?

I didn't like the idea of changing myself for the industry. I felt to have my teeth straightened and bleached and to starve myself to change my body was not respecting who I was.

I always try to be true to who I am and just be myself.

I went to almost all of the agencies in New York when I first visited. A lot of them wanted to sign me but also kind of indirectly were telling me that I needed to change in some way. Some directly told me that I wouldn't be a model unless I changed the way that my body looked.

I don't want my wrinkles taken away - I don't want to look like everyone else.

I think it is very important that you like yourself for who you are and not want to look like anyone else. You also have to understand, many people have had cosmetic surgeries in order to look the way they look. So why look like them when you can just look like you? And there is nothing wrong with looking like you.

For me, it's about not being too aware of what you look like because if you are, you're trying too hard and I don't think that actually makes you look good... I've known from very early on that I don't look perfect.

On my Instagram, my boyfriend will take pictures of me, or someone else will take a picture of me, and they're like, 'What is wrong with her? She looks sick.' And I'm like, 'No I just don't have two hours of hair and makeup, you guys.'

People expect me to be thin and perfect... I'm not.

We all hate on ourselves way too much, and there are so many people who think they have to look like those women on TV. That's so unreasonable. Everybody is supposed to be a different size. And if I can just be confident in myself, then I'll look better. It's quantum physics!

Being yourself is one of the greatest things you can possibly do. Being true to yourself.

I resent that there is an image of perfection that is getting thinner and thinner. I've got a lovely husband and children, and I didn't lose weight to find those things.

When I do see a picture of myself that has been touched up too much, I do get a bit sad... it makes me look like a hypocrite. It breaks my heart. I would rather shoot a magazine and shoot my flaws, but that's not up to me.