On any given day, long before the sun shines into your window and rouses you out of bed, it’s likely that Candice Swanepoel has already been hard at work for hours. “I’m up and on-set pretty early, usually by 5 a.m.,” says the 26-year-old Victoria’s Secret Angel, who routinely shoots for 12 hours a day, often seven days a week. “I do a lot of swimwear, so for the best light, we try to get the sunrise and sunset.” Afterward, when everyone else goes home to relax, Swanepoel hits the gym for a full-body workout. “I’m an athlete,” she says. “I use every single muscle, especially my core and arms, when I pose. It’s so important for me to feel strong.”
Such discipline and dedication come naturally to Swanepoel, who grew up on a beef-and-dairy farm in South Africa. “I saw my dad wake up at 4 every morning to milk the cows. I’d put on my overalls and gum boots and follow him around,” she says. “Growing up surrounded by so much life and death and realness shaped my personality. Africa is not for wussies. It’s in our culture to be hard workers.”
That may be why, after being scouted at a local flea market at age 15, Swanepoel took the brave step of moving to Europe, alone, to pursue her new career. She spent the next two and a half years walking runway shows for major designers, including Dolce & Gabbana. And yet, despite her early success, she remembers that period in her life as difficult. “It was the loneliness,” she says. “Every day, I was working with different people who were speaking different languages, so I was never able to form any relationships. I just wanted to go home.” During that time, she was also told that she needed to lose weight. “I was so used to people criticizing me for being too thin that it was shocking to me,” she says. “I was crying.”
By age 17, Swanepoel was ready to quit modeling altogether. That’s when Victoria’s Secret called, and everything changed. “My agent said, ‘They want to see you. If you get the show, will you move to New York?’ I said, ‘If I got Victoria’s Secret, I’d do anything.'” She landed the gig, moved across the world, found an instant community and rededicated herself to her work—and her workouts.
