Victoria’s Secret Angel and L’Oréal superstar, Douten Kroes fronts The Telegraph Fashion’s Fall/Winter 2013/14 Fashion Supplement, lensed dressed down by Will Davidson.

Ten years ago, Kroes emigrated from her village of Eastermar in Holland, seeking a bit of extra pocket money working as a model. Today, Doutzen Kroes if the fifth-highest-paid model, according to Forbes.

Arriving in Amsterdam, she was signed up immediately and on her way to New York. Her big break came with Steven Meisel and the cover of Italian Vogue.

See all AOC Doutzen Kroes editorials

Very active on Instagram, Kroes worries that unintentionally, she puts pressures on young women. ‘I feel I’m such a big part of that insecurity that some girls might have because of my job, that girls think they have to be that picture. And even boys, they think that that picture exists and it’s so frustrating because I don’t look like that picture - I wake up not looking like that picture.’

Occasionally posting makeup free, natural pics of herself, Doutzen says people ‘want the fantasy’.

Doutzen Kroes stresses the fact that she is no size zero and doesn’t aspire to be, saying ‘I’m not a sample size at all. At some shows I know they have been using very young girls who have not gone into the change of the body yet - no hips, no boobs. I’m 28 and I’ve had a baby. I have a woman’s body.’

The top model does stress the importance of fitness and healthy eating in her life. Her personal trainer is the former boxer Michael Olajide, and she is also working with Mary Helen Bowers, the founder of Ballet Beautiful’. Kroes likes the combo of both boxing and ballet, calling it “very extreme”.

But then many people in today’s world would find her biking about 25km back and forth to school every day ‘extreme’.

My mum would say, if you go on your bike it will make you stronger. I think it did. I see a lot of Dutch women on their bikes with their kids and their groceries and it makes me happy to see that it’s how we are, and how I was raised. In the countryside I was always outside, kind of like a tomboy.’

As for not always fitting in those size 0 jeans definitely not designed for a successful model yummy mummy or your average woman, Doutzen Kroes says ‘If they think I’m too fat, I’d rather not do the job — because I am super-healthy and fit and I’m so happy the way I am.’

How about the rest of us focusing on the woman in the mirror with such unabated confidence and enthusiasm! ~ Anne

via tgn