Kylie Bisutti: Victoria’s Secret Angel Gives Up Modeling for Role Modeling

She quit her job modeling as a Victoria’s Secret Angel. She gave up an offer to appear on Dancing with the Stars. She even gave up an acting opportunity on the popular network, the CW. It appeared that she had every young woman’s dream of a successful modeling career and acting gig, and could have the makings of a Hollywood regular and multimillionaire celebrity. Who is this person and why would anyone give all of this up?

Her name is Kylie Bisutti, and the reason she gave it all up is because she found God.

It took a series of events for this Victoria's Secret Angel to realize she was becoming a bad role model for women. While she was airing in a VS lingerie show on TV, Bisutti remembered when her eight-year old cousin told her earlier in her career, “I’m going to throw up my food so I look like you.” This comment, along with several other events, made her feel conflicted about the industry she had devoted her life to.

In an infamous tweet on her decision to quit modeling, she wrote, “I quit being a VS model to be a Proverbs 31 wife.” Proverbs 31 states, "Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised." Bisutti decided to quit modeling after feeling remorse for being a party to the sex industry, for not honoring her husband, and for promoting self-worth as defined by body image.

In today’s society, modeling, Hollywood, pornography, and even some people’s perception of how to climb the corporate ladder tell us that women must dress a certain way in order to get noticed and deprive themselves in order to be skinny. In order to make it to the top in male-dominated industries, you’ve got to sleep your way to the top.

Society is turning more and more toward objectifying women rather than honoring them. It treats women as pieces of meat rather than works of art. Many of us want to be ignorant to the fact that we are active participants in the objectification of women (yes, even women can be both victims and perpetrators). Too many of us don’t want to realize that by our subscriptions to magazines like Cosmopolitan, our devotion reality TV shows like America’s Next Top Model, and our secret indulgence of pornography behind closed doors, we are actually contributing to the demoralization of the family unit.

Instead of being timid and apathetic, we need to be bold and courageous. Great role models like Kylie Bisutti should not be the exception to the rule. After winning the Victoria’s Secret Angel competition, she was booked by a top modeling agency, IMG, for a lingerie shoot. She was placed in a nearly sheer bikini and the photographer told her they’d be able to Photoshop it if it exposed “too much.” A week later, she Googled herself to discover her pictures uploaded to a porn site. Shortly after, she was booked in a shoot for the men’s magazine, Maxim.  She told the New York Post, “They were men’s magazines, not pornography, but they were still selling sex.”  

Bisutti has been given the opportunity to show women the beauty of grace after falling so far. There are numerous reasons why the objectification of women is bad — it can destroy a marriage, a family, and the self-worth of the individual. Instead, great role models for young women are the ones who exemplify Proverbs 31 – virtuous women who honor God by living a life with purpose, diligence, forgiveness, repentance, and dignity. These women may be young mothers, your grandmother, your co-worker, your sisters, or your friends, but they are not the false image of success promoted by the media.

Bisutti is releasing her tell-all book, I’m No Angel: From Victoria’s Secret Model to Role Model, on May 14 and spreading her message that beauty is found in the inside on her website, www.kyliebisutti.com.