Scouted by a modelling agent when she was sixteen years old, Cameron Russell approached her job with scepticism. She was a precocious and serious student with her sights set on college—not the runway. But modelling seemed to offer young women like her access to wealth, fame, and influence. Besides, as she was often reminded, there were "a million girls in line" to replace her.
A ferocious, visceral memoir, How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone chronicles how Russell learned to navigate the dizzying space between physical appearance and interiority, and making money in an often-exploitative system.
Instead of providing freedom, modelling required her to perform the role of compliant femme fatale, in which she found little room for transformation or growth. So she began organizing with her peers for labor rights, climate and racial justice, even bringing MeToo to the fashion industry.
Intimate, illuminating, and deeply honest, How to Make Herself Agreeable to Everyone is a nuanced, deeply felt examination of beauty, complicity, and the fight for a better world.