Model Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds says she was told to eat cotton balls in order to lose weight

A group of former models has been blowing the whistle on some of the most disturbing things that go on behind the scenes in the fashion world.

Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds, who signed with the world-renowned NEXT agency at age 16, told Variety in a shocking interview about her struggles to lose weight and secure high-profile gigs, including climbing a glacier in Iceland.

By the time Seay-Reynolds was 17, she was walking in New York Fashion Week and flying to places like London, Milan and Paris.

But eventually she developed an eating disorder. And she said it got so bad that at one point brands started complaining that their clothes didn’t even fit her properly.

During her first year as a runway star, she recalled her agent telling her, “Cotton balls are organic, so it’s fine if you just swallow them to make yourself feel full.”

At the same time, she said she secured a “Lord of Rings-esque” photo shoot in Iceland.

“We stop at a glacier over icy, ice-covered water. And [the photographer] parks the car, and he’s like, “Climb!”

Seay-Reynolds and a colleague then climbed a glacier in heels and “gauzy slips” while weathering a hailstorm. The rest of the crew involved in the shoot wore parkas, she said.

She claims the pair were also told to change while on top of the glacier because they were told it would take them too long to come down.

“The photographer even asked us to jump over a crevasse on top of the glacier, which plummeted at least 20 feet. Fortunately, during the shoot, the stylist said, “That’s not happening. She’s going to die,” she added.

At the same shoot, Seay-Reynolds said she was also forced to trek through scalding hot springs that could have exposed her to water so hot it would burn flesh off.

Upon returning to the US, Seay-Reynolds said she was told the photographer overseeing the shoot was notorious for putting the talent in that kind of precarious situation.

In response to that claim, NEXT co-founder Joel Wilkenfeld told Variety in part, “We hope that model would call us if they were exposed to such conditions. The unfortunate thing is that we are not present at every shoot.’

Wilkenfeld also said that if Seay-Reynolds had informed anyone in management that he had been told to consume cotton balls, that agent “would have been fired on the spot.”

Seay-Reynolds also claimed that talent scouts have been known to scour eating disorder clinics and even refugee camps for new faces.

In addition, Seay-Reynolds said she, and many others, were financially exploited by agencies. In one instance, she recalled making just $130 for six weeks of “grueling” work.

“I don’t know if I should have made that much or if my agency just took that money. I have no idea, because they don’t give you coupons,’ she said.

In her early years, Seay-Reynolds said, she was forced to live in a small apartment with eight other women where “there was a scale that you had to step on to get into the kitchen.”

“The only thing ever in the fridge is Diet Coke,” she added. At one point in her career, Seay-Reynolds said he weighed only 80 pounds.

“Nobody cares about modeling problems because they sound like problems with beautiful people. They think modeling is Kendall Jenner getting $10 million for an Instagram selfie. But the reality is that the rest of us are literally living in ‘The Hunger Games’. Pun unintentional,” said Seay-Reynolds.

This kind of financial manipulation leaves models vulnerable to predators like Jeffrey Epstein and Harvey Weinstein, the article claims.

Former NEXT agent Chris Brenner told Variety that Weinstein and Donald Trump were regularly seen backstage at events where young models would change.

“Harvey became a fixture… Donald Trump certainly was. I would see Donald Trump backstage at [Fashion Week home] Bryant Park, and I’m like, “Why is he standing there when a 13-year-old is changing? This is weird,” said Brenner, who once counted Milla Jovovich as a client.

“The agency puts them in the model apartment. They pay for their flights. They never disclose how much they cost. They pay for your visa. So you’ve gained weight and you’re $15,000 in debt. And they remove this money every time you get a job. How could you survive?,” said model Ambra Guiterrez, who was born in Italy.

The Variety piece accuses Weinstein of “dangling opportunities” for models to entice them.

Another model, Kenny Sale, told Variety that many who are now speaking out against the Fashion Workers Act, a law designed to give models more rights, are the same people who ignored allegations related to Epstein.

The late pedophile was known as a regular face in NEXT’s New York City offices.

Sale said in his interview that he was sexually assaulted by photographer Mario Testino in 2015, something Testino denies. The photographer has been accused of sexual misconduct by 18 other men.

When Sale told his agent about Testino, he was told, “If you’d gotten down on your knees, you might have gotten some better photos in your portfolio.”

Born in South Sudan and a former refugee, model Mari Malek compared her treatment in the industry to what she endured in her youth.

“I was disrespected, berated, sexually harassed, underpaid and never paid for some of my work and went to dinners and events more than castings as a feast for the eyes,” said Malek.

She also described the racism she faced when she saw a sign at a casting that read, “No Black Girls Unless Asked.”

“I was told, ‘Just shut up and model.’

Model Alliance founder Sara Ziff told Variety that models are actively recruited in refugee camps.

“Models are now being scouted by agencies from refugee camps in this new era of promoting diversity,” Ziff said.

“They actually hunt girls in refugee camps and then let them come and live in the model apartment, build up debts and then bring them back to the refugee camp,” she added.

It has been Previously reported who had gathered model scouts at the Stockholm Center for Eating Disorders to lure patients into the fashion world.

Seay-Reynolds was discovered at a funeral, she said in a 2021 interview.

“Actually, it started with a funeral. There was an old woman in a wheelchair who kept staring at me, and I thought, “Am I being rude? Why is she staring at me, I’m not doing anything,” she recalls.

“She came up to me afterwards and said, ‘I’m the head of a modeling agency, you have to do modeling. You have to do this.'”

She explained that things went “really, very quickly” after that and she started to lose control of herself.

“Within a few months I was doing Marc Jacobs shows and campaigns, and Chanel and Fendi. It was kind of a crazy whirlwind,” she continued.

“Looking back, I was very young. For me, as a person who is very competitive and used to working very hard, it is very frustrating to work very hard and make nothing of it.

“I think I felt like my body was the only thing I could control, so I just kind of went crazy.”

The photographer involved in the infamous shoot in Iceland told Variety that he was told at the end of the project that Seay-Reynolds refused to eat. He said his people had contacted NEXT “to express concern” that she was struggling with a condition.

“I was angry that her agency would have sent a model who had such concerns on every shoot, not to mention a destination project,” he added.