Watch Supermodel Natalia Vodianova’s Life Story in Less Than 3 Minutes

I'm a survivor, because that's what I got used to,

but it also means that today there's not many things

that can pull me down, that can stop me.

(music)

When my sister, with special needs, was growing up,

she was the source of light,

and unconditional love and happiness.

That was not something that I had much of

when I was a little child in Russia.

My mother was fighting to give us the little that we had.

My mother was left alone, she had to take four

different jobs, even selling fruit on the street.

My sister, Oksana, was pretty much my responsibility

most of the time.

By age 11 I was working.

There was no time to play.

I didn't even know, really,

anything about models or modelling.

Fashion was definitely not on my radar

and also, the boys at school used to draw me like a stick,

so that was not very helpful

in thinking of myself as a pretty girl.

It's quite a tough industry, you travel a lot,

it's quite hard, you're constantly pulled around,

and your skin gets tired, your hair gets tired.

I was incredibly lucky that I had people

who didn't use me, who were honest with me,

who respected me, treated me like a human being.

I remember cutting the ribbon and letting the children

kind of fill in the space.

The sound of laughter, the sound of happiness,

it was overwhelming.

I jumped, I cried, it was just the most beautiful moment

that I had lived so far in my life.

I was so young when I had my first child

so of course I matured naturally

just because in your twenties you change

quite dramatically I found.

Motherhood gets easier just because you've done it before.

You don't have this paranoid feeling,

am I doing something wrong.

You do the best you can, the good will come out of it.

Life is long, we can also disappear tomorrow,

so why don't we trust ourselves to just go for it.