Dita Von Teese struggled with body confidence growing up because she didn't have any role models to look up to. The 45-year-old burlesque dancer is famous for her fantastic figure and flawless complexion, which she always highlights with winged eyeliner, bright red lips and her raven hair worn in vintage waves.
While Dita has become an icon for many, she has admitted in a new interview that becoming proud of her appearance was a slow process. "I felt like I didn't have many role models of beauty and sensuality that I could relate to," she told Pedestrian.tv. "I couldn't relate to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit model or Cindy Crawford or (any) other kind of natural look that was so popular."
STORY: Dita von Teese talks body image
Dita von Teese admitted she struggled with body confidence
Instead, Dita looked to famous faces from the past as inspiration, such as Hollywood actress Betty Grable. "I saw all the glamour of the creation of beauty, and that intrigued me a lot, and gave me inspiration that I could do the same," she smiled. Now, the brunette star is hoping to make a difference when it comes to the stereotypical idea of beauty, by hiring women of all shapes and sizes for her The Art of Teese Show. The production heads to Australia in 2018 and previous audiences were so impressed with the diversity of the show cast, that Dita has made it something of her mission statement to continue in that vein.
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"What felt really inspiring to me was hearing from audience members saying how inspired they were to see different body shapes represented, and diversity and beauty and age and ethnicity, and that was really important to people who felt like they wanted to see that they could also be sexy, they could see somebody representing that maybe looks a little bit like they do," she explained. "It became a mission statement for me to tour with a show like that."