An ode to Cara Delevingne as a supermodel

It’s no surprise that after six years in the fashion business, the 23-year-old supermodel Cara Delevingne is quitting, according to a interview she did with The Sunday Times.

In November 2014, Delevingne first announced to WWD she was taking a break from fashion to pursue her budding acting career. Last month, Delevingne left her mother modeling agency, Storm Model Management. The English actress toldVogue in her July 2015 cover story about modeling not being enough and wanting to act before anything else. She speaks often about the toll the fashion industry has put on her physical and mental health; suffering from psoriasis, telling W Magazine, due to stress during fashion week and hating her body, explaining to The Wall Street Journal, due to sexual harassment and unrealistic body image expectations. She told The Sunday Times:

“It didn’t make me grow at all as a human being,” said Cara Delevingne. “And I kind of forgot how young I was. I felt so old.”

While modeling may have been a detour for Delevingne—following in the footsteps of her older sister Poppy—she’s made quite the impact, helping to bring back the ’80s and ’90s phenomenon of the supermodel and even being called our generation’s Kate Moss by Karl Lagerfeld. She brought (along with supermodels Karlie Kloss, Jourdan Dunn and Joan Smalls) something to the runways that was missing: Personality. That seeped through in everything that she did: interviews, photoshoots, street style, and walking the runway. She helped Karl Lagerfeld turn his supermarket-inspired Chanel Spring 2014 runway set into the real thing; getting pushed around in a shopping cart with Rihanna and Joan Smalls.

Then in September 2014, Delevingne, Karlie Kloss and Joan Smalls were the first supermodels to appear on the cover of American Vogue in ten years.

Delevingne has the rare innate talent of trying things and being good at them: viral dances, beatboxing, singing, making interviewers feel like idiots and now, acting. Currently, she’s starring in the movie Paper Town, and this year she has four more films being released, including Pans with Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara. Pursuing acting won’t exactly eliminate all of the problems and unhappiness that she endured working in the fashion industry—Hollywood is full of creepy and condescending men, pressures to look a certain way, and unwanted stress. In fact, there are probably just as many photoshoots. But Delevingne seems to be ready, she told The Sunday Times that fashion has made her tougher:

“If there is injustice I will flip out. If someone is crossing a line, they will know about it and so will everyone else,” said Cara Delevingne.

Let’s take a moment to revisit some of her best catwalks, advertising campaigns, and editorials.

Cara in Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows:

Cara in Chanel:

Cara in Chanel with Pharrell: