How Not to Be a Supermodel by Ruth Crilly

£10.99
Available
Product Ref. (e.g. ISBN, SKU)
9781788709255
Published:
10 Jul 2025
Format:
Paperback
Number of pages:
384 pages
Dimensions:
198x129mm
Weight:
0.000kgs
Author:
You may not know Ruth Crilly's name, but chances are you have spotted her face, particularly if you were fond of an Oxford Street shopping spree in the early noughties. Modelling then was very different to modelling now: there was reality tv, no aesthetics industry or innovative plastic surgery techniques with which to 'launch' a modelling career that mainly plays out on the squares of Instagram and TikTok. There were no press trips to five star hotels along with mini shoots at said hotels and contractual obligations to post. There were no talent managers, no brand managers, no reputational managers. Instead, there was the apocryphal legend of Kate Moss, scouted in JFK airport and rocketed to worldwide superstardom, meaning that it was totally fine and normal for strangers to approach young women outside the Oxford Circus Topshop, waving a polaroid camera and claiming to be a model scout.

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER!

*THE MUST-READ NOUGHTIES NOSTALGIA MEMOIR*

'Hilarious' CAITLIN MORAN
'Witty, gossipy, self-effacing and deeply nostalgic, this is a joy for all of us who survived the noughties but have forgotten quite how. Much more than the memoir of a fashion model, this is the rarely-told insider story of the most glamorous, grotty and downright insane industries' SALI HUGHES

Join Ruth Crilly in this comic memoir as she teeters through the noughties and lifts the lid on her days as an international fashion model. Told with unparalleled wit and remarkable detail, this is a book for anyone who dreams big and aims high but never quite reaches their goal.

At twenty years old, five feet eight and with boobs that were 'inconveniently fulsome', Ruth was not quite young enough, tall enough or waif-like enough to ever hope for a meteoric rise to supermodel status. And yet her sheer optimism and questionable grasp on reality led her to abandon her law degree and begin a career with one of the biggest agencies in the world.

Follow Ruth through a rip-roaring, hilarious decade of not-quite-making-it as a supermodel. Fuelled by little more than cigarettes and the stress of her spiralling debt she criss-crosses the world in pursuit of fame and fortune. But how far is she willing to go for this wildly unrealistic dream?

Bridget Jones meets the Devil Wears Prada, How Not to be a Supermodel is a time capsule of a book that dives into one of the world's most fascinating industries. Offering a glimpse into both the high glamour and juddering reality of a by-gone era, this comic memoir tackles the darkest of subjects with the very lightest touch and injects humour and a heart-warming honesty into a story that could have so easily ended a different way.

About the Author: Ruth Crilly is an award-winning online writer and content creator respected for her honest beauty reviews and loved for her hilarious, unfiltered life updates. After spending over a decade as a fashion model, she became one of the UK's first social media stars in 2010 and her eponymous blog has been read more than 50 million times. Her earlier career as a successful fashion model left her with a fear of tape measures, diminished confidence in her physical appearance and a horrible tendency to rely on self-deprecation as a form of humour.

More Information
Number of pages 384

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