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Gisele Bundchen, World's Highest-Paid Supermodel, Was Once Told Some Very Crappy Things About Her Face

Photo: Fernanda Calfat/Getty Images

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You don't get to be a person recognizable by her first name alone with just any old face. But when Gisele (Bundchen, obviously) was starting her modeling career as a teenager in Brazil, she was given some pretty mean feedback.

"I remember some people telling me my nose was too big or my eyes were too small, that I could never be on a magazine cover," she tells People. "It wasn't easy to be 14 and hear that kind of criticism. It made me feel insecure."

It echoes a sentiment many models, actresses, and other professionally beautiful people have shared in the past, most recently Kerry Washington, who told Oprah, "In the beginning of my career I was often told to fix things like fix your teeth, wear your hair differently or dress differently or I was too ethnic or I didn't speak black enough."

Luckily, in Gisele's case, her father had some advice. "I told my dad, and he said, 'Next time, tell them, I have a big nose and that comes with a big personality.'" A great tip for us all.