From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model –Kylie Bisutti
In February of 2012, I met former Victoria Secret model, Kylie Bisutti, at a local Starbucks. She sat with me and 2 of my girlfriends, and chatted for nearly 2 hours. She was so sweet and gracious and solid spiritually.
She had literally just come from New York city where she was a guest on multiple shows like Good Morning America and Fox and Friends. All of them baffled at her choice to quit being a Victoria Secret model. The media attention all began when a tweet came from Alex Eklund, the founder of Live31. He said:
I’d much rather have a Proverbs 31 woman than a VS model.
Then Kylie tweeted back:
I quit being a VS model to become a Proverbs 31 wife.
Little did she know what that little tweet would turn into, as the media caught wind of her story.
And so you probably wonder –how did she become a model, what’s her story and how in the world did she reach angel status and then quit for Jesus?
Kylie tells her entire story in her newly released book titled — I’m No Angel: From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model and I had a chance to read an advance copy.
In Kylie’s book she shares about her road to modeling and salvation. She moved to Las Vegas with her family and at the age of 14 began walking in runway fashion shows there. By 16, she had moved to New York City alone and was modeling in New York’s well-known Fashion Week.
Previous to her move to New York, a girl from school who had never spoken to her previously, invited her to her church youth group. She was warmly received there and for the first time in her life learned about Jesus and the Bible. She had spent so much time on her external transformation that she found much hope in the message of internal transformation through Jesus. And off to New York she went straddling two worlds that would eventually collide.
One of the most eye opening parts of this book is when Kylie shares the harsh realities of modeling. She writes:
Ultimately, your body doesn’t really belong to you. It belongs to the client. Since they’re paying, they figure they can do pretty much whatever they want to you. They can curl your hair, straighten it, dye it, cut it –even shave it. I’ve seen hair extensions being pulled out by the roots and smoke billowing out of flat irons while the hair inside gets singed and fried. I’ve watched models squeeze their feet into shoes so small their feet literally bled, and I’ve seen false eyelashes torn off so quickly that the natural lashes came off with them. Modeling may look glamorous on the outside, but believe me, beauty can be an ugly business.
Kylie’s brave and transparent stories of the modeling world (from the inside) truly broke my heart for both the women in the industry and all of us who look at fashion magazines and dream of having their beauty.
She speaks of being 5’10”, 108 pounds, a size 0 and still being considered too large for some designers. These designers wanted their clothes to fit on the models like hangars and so she tells of some models going to heart breaking extremes to meet these standards –starving themselves. And then there’s airbrushing…
Oh friends, don’t we all struggle with feeling like we aren’t….thin enough, pretty enough, or just…enough. We would be tempted to believe that these super models must be free of these struggles but this book shows the pressures these women face –beyond any we can imagine.
In the end, Kylie meets a wonderful Christian man and falls in love –truly it’s a fairy tale love story but not without heartache as she wrestles with her decisions to go forward modeling for Victoria Secret while trying to lead a committed Christian life.
I find Kylie’s testimony both riveting and powerful. She chose her faith over fame, fortune and the most coveted title in modeling and for that –I am so inspired by Kylie.
Want to learn more about her? Read her blog here: http://www.imnoangel.org/ or follow her on twitter here: https://twitter.com/mrsbisutti and you can buy her book on amazon here: I’m No Angel: From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model
And just a side note, I was pretty blessed when Kylie tweeted this last September:
Walk with the King, 
what an example of letting go of the world to hold tight to Jesus. wow! powerful!
Her website is such an inspiration. Love seeing young women following hard after God. Thanks for sharing!
She’s so pretty and a role model to young ladies! Just downloaded her book to my Kindle 🙂
So good to read articles like this. It’s hopeful. I wish more role models like this would pop up all over the world. There are so many everyday women that feel so unhappy with their bodies and will abuse it because they can to achieve the results they want or maybe abuse it in a different way because they have given up on themselves and no longer care. I wish I knew of brave, godly women like this when I was younger. It would have saved me years of heartache, self loathing and slowly being self destructive.
Learning to be a Proverbs 31 wife is tough. She is an inspiration though, giving up her career for what truly matters most. What a blessing it is to see a light shining in this dark world. I pray that God will use her for His glory, to share the gospel to many other woman. Bless you, Kylie Bisutti, and thank you for your bravery and for walking in God’s ways!
I know you did not just make this choice, but after reading Courtney’s words this morning, all I can say is WELCOME HOME KYLIE! You are right where you belong! Can’t wait to read your book!
WOW!!!! I can’t wait to read her book and check out her site! This kind of stuff excites me ^.^
What an awesome witness for Christ! I am definitely going to check out her blog.
This is all well and good, but did she meet this “wonderful Christian man” because she was a Victoria’s Secret model to begin with? It is hard, because my daughter is very beautiful, and I want her to meet a good Christian man…but despite her attending a major Christian college (where many men just want to “hook up” and many smoked pot and did drugs relentlessly) she hasn’t met anyone. She gave up dancing and cheering after college (where she was captain for three years) because she felt uncomfortable doing so, even though she has had many approach her saying that she could make the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders or the area NBA teams’ squad. I know she would, as well. However, it is very difficult to NOT do those wordly things! She was all set for the latter tryouts, and upon inspecting some youtube videos, she did not feel that God would be very pleased with her doing some of those things in front of other women’s husbands and other people. This is from my heart, do you know what I mean? I think it’s easy to DO the thing, and then say, “Oh, well, I gave it up for God”…instead of NOT doing the thing to begin with. What about those that don’t have some prodigal son story, that have instead tried to do the right things all along? Not quite as glamorous, is it? Something to think about.
God has a plan and He will reward her for being set apart!
Thank you. I need encouragement. It’s hard to raise Godly children in this world. God bless you.
I’m riveted. Oh what a message like this that needs to reach young girls and women. Thank you for sharing this, I hope it can make a difference in at least one life but I’m sure much more.
Glory to God in the Highest!!! I’m so glad there are some of these models that are answering Christ’s call and repenting of being a sensual stumbling block!