What makes women beautiful? What are the outstanding qualities that take a person from ordinary to beautiful? And if you're lucky enough to be perceived as beautiful, how does it change your every day life? In Cameron Russell's 2012 TEDx Talk, entitled "Looks aren't everything. Believe me I'm a model," she confronts the issues and perceived views of beauty and image through her experience as an underwear model. Russell declares that beauty is superficial. She conveys this idea by conveying her daily struggles of how women are not defined by their beauty but by how they perceive themselves. 

When she first enters the stage, Russell is wearing a tight black dress and some designer burgundy pumps. She addresses the audience by stating the that she shouldn't have worn what she was wearing and decided to put on a long flowy skirt, baggy sweater, and some flat shoes. Russell then goes on to says that the audience perception changed within a ten second wardrobe change. By doing this, she reveals to the audience that first impressions are powerful and fueled by appearance. Appearance is the initial perception in a first encounter and by conveying this to the audience Russell opens the audience up to the cold hard truth. This ignites the first step in stripping away and the perception  and opens the minds of the audience. 

  Next, Russell establishes her credibility by giving a little background information about her career as a model. Russell has been working as a model for ten years and currently still working in this career. Previously posing on the cover of French Vogue and being a current Victoria Secret model allows the audience to validate her credibility about her TED talk topic. She accomplishes this connection with the audience by displaying photographs of her work behind her, immediately giving the audience a visual way to see the beauty in the pictures. She goes on to say that all of this (being a model) is possible because she "won the genetic lottery and is the recipient of a legacy." The legacy in which she is referring is the how the definition of beauty over the years have been described as tall, slender, and Caucasian women. The use of such a powerful word, legacy, delivers a compelling thought to the reader. Is beauty just a trait of good bone structure passed down in a family tree for generations and generations? By saying this, she addresses the issue of race within the modeling industry and really am instructry. She then references a NYU PhD student who conducted an experiment where they counted all the models who were hired for the runway way that year. The results concluded that out six hundred and seventy-seven models, only 27 of them were non white, less than four percent. Through her display of an example, the viewer is now devoted to what she to say because of the serious this brings to the speech. 

Russell truthfully answers the questions that models often receive. For first question, "How do you become a model?" She would say that she was scouted out for the job but the honest answer that it's because of her win in the genetic lottery and her membership in a legacy that has made her what she is today. Second, "How Can I be a model?" She answers this question with a question. "Why? You could do so many other things." She says "Be my boss," with being a boss comes voice and you loose your voice when you become a model. "You can't be the president one day with a career background as an underwear model." This addresses the issue that once a person has a title with your face you no longer can have any other title. Thirdly, "Can I be a model when I grow up?" she says the likely hood of becoming a model is equivalent to winning the lottery, even displaying a lottery winners smiling face on the screen behind her. Answering pressing questions truthfully for the first time proves she is a trustworthy speaker. 

After this she goes on the establishes more credibility by showing some pictures of her on covers of magazine and on the runway. She eventually exposes that those pictures are not real pictures of her but yet construction that were made by professional such as photographers, makeup artist, and hair stylist. She backs up this thought by showing "real" pictures of her around the same time as professional pictures of her were taken. The comparison was dramatically different, shocking the viewer. She tells stories of the pictures displayed on the screen behind her. One picture displayed is of her young and posed sexually. She then says that she had not even had a boyfriend at the time. This exposes that a picture does say a thousand words but the photographs you see in magazines are pictures with those words already thought ahead of time. 

She wraps up everything she has said so far with a single thought. Women of all ages have issues with beauty and appearance. Models struggle daily with their appearance. Revealing this almost ghastly fact puts all the women as a whole. No one is separated by what they look like anymore. Russell unites women as a whole by showing this universal fatal flaw. 

Beauty is not defined by what you see in a magazine but what you make it. Beauty comes from within not from what someone else defines it as. Through the exposure of a common obstacle, Cameron Russell displays that is superficial. It's on the surface and you're only defined by the legacy. That legacy might change tomorrow but what you know inside will never change. Her career plays a key role in getting the audience to trust her enough to believe this to be true. She does a fantastic job of making her viewers and audience members see beauty through her eyes. 

