DANIELLE N

From pain to power: How one model didn’t let the weight she gained in a toxic relationship weigh her down.

Danielle Nash, 26, from Birmingham, UK, says she grew up as a dynamic and self-assured young woman until a toxic relationship with a man 20 years her senior caused her to doubt her authenticity and intelligence.

As one of the finalists for the Ms Curvaceous 2016 competition, she says the event helped her rediscover her light and share it with the modelling industry. 

Working with top global brands like Rimmel London, Schwarzkopf and Amazon Prime have been among the highlights of her career so far. 

Graceful and poised with a playful mystique, it’s not hard to see why 26-year-old plus size model Danielle Nash is an international model, judging from both the campaigns she has worked on as well as the inspiring images on her Instagram feed. 

Growing up Danielle was just as gifted in her academics as in her sports and dance, which she credits as contributors to her breathtaking form in many of the images she takes.

Being a scholarly person, she adds that for a long time the apparel she imagined wearing in her future career was court robes: 

“I wanted to be a lawyer or a journalist… I couldn’t decide between the two. I wasn’t the girl that the boys liked from my teenage years. I was such a nerd I was the one who would offer to help our teacher after class… that’s how popular I was.”

She says she never struggled with her self-esteem until a toxic relationship. This led to her entering one of the UK’s best-known workshops and competitions for instilling confidence in plus size women.

“What started it really (her modelling journey) was the Ms Curvaceous competition. At the time, I had just come out of a mentally abusive relationship, and my confidence was at an all-time low. He was older than me, and I had a baby face, and he encouraged, forced me really, to gain weight, so I would look older so people wouldn’t judge him when we were together. That’s the kind of toxic he was.”

She initially joined Ms Curvaceous for the confidence-building workshops. This later led to her getting booked and scouted for magazine shoots, runways and photoshoots.

“The biggest turning point was when I went to Miami for the Sports Illustrated open casting. I didn’t get it, but I was then recommended to try different modelling agencies and basically, I got offered a modelling contract for one of the largest agencies that specialise in plus size models.”

Danielle has since walked for New York Fashion Week, UK Plus Size Fashion Week and has modelled in front of the world’s most iconic personalities in the modelling world:

“I was at a show for the Amazon Prime TV series Making The Cut, and I was wearing the winning designer’s collection on a rooftop in New York. It was a huge deal, just because of some of the models that were there, a lot of whom I had only seen online but also because of the calibre of judges that were there like Naomi Campbell, Heidi Klum, Tim Gunman. It was such an incredible experience.”

Danielle says she still aims to do more purposefully, despite the many career-affirming moves she has made in the six years she’s been a model. Still humble and often in awe of these achievements. While she doesn’t ever see herself returning to law, despite finding it interesting, she says her future lies in the modelling industry. 

“There are still a lot of things in the industry that I would love to have the impact to change. Even though the industry is accepting more diversity and more natural hairstyles, they are still categorising according to the types (of skin colour and hair texture), and that is something I would love to encourage and inspire more girls with,” she says. “Whatever you feel yourself you can do, you can do”, are Danielle’s words of advice to young women hoping to get into the modelling industry.

And while her parting words sound a lot like James Allen’s quote “as a man thinketh”, coming from a woman who’s had the mental strength to walk away from a toxic relationship and build a portfolio with clients from across the world, they do hold and are a testament to how limitless humans can be if they can believe in themselves.