Victoria’s Secret model Doutzen Kroes embraces her woman’s body: “I’m not a sample size at all”

28-year-old Victoria’s Secret and L’Oreal model Doutzen Kroes opens up about how she views her body in a new interview. She says she’s not a size 0, the usual sample size, and lives an extremely healthy lifestyle, and has had a baby, so so she has no problems not fitting into clothing designed to fit a prepubescent girl.

“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, and once in a while you run into the fact that things are not fitting the way they should be,” she tells U.K. newspaper The Telegraph. “But I joke about it and say, ‘What 13-year-old girl was wearing this?’ 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.”

Doutzen comes from a small village in Holland, and started her modeling career at 18 years old when she moved to NYC and soon got a big break shooting for Italian Vogue. Since then the only time she’s stopped working was to give birth to her two-year-old son Phyllon with husband DJ Sunnery James. She owes her fantastic body in part to a healthy lifestyle as a child in her Dutch village. “I biked to school every day, about 25km there and back. My mum would say, ‘if you go on your bike it will make you stronger,'” she remembers. “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.”

Doutzen now has a personal trainer, and even though she’s comfortable in her body, she still has pressure to stay extra-fit, especially for live televised Victoria’s Secret shows. “For the show, there is no retouching,” Kroes says. “We can’t escape from the truth. There are millions of people watching – and even people watching live – so it’s really important to work out a lot, which I do, and I definitely change my diet. Diet is 70 per cent of what your body looks like. You can work out all you like but if you don’t eat well… I stop drinking [alcohol] a month before the show and no sugar. I still eat carbs because to have just protein and vegetables for me, it doesn’t work. But I eat one potato with some fish and greens – very basic and happy food.'”

photos: Alberto Reyes/WENN.com, WILL DAVIDSON