Lily Cole

Don't overpluck your eyebrows. A make-up artist told me this once, and I've always remembered it.

If I'm anywhere close to where I can hike or swim, that's my favourite thing to do.

I love yoga. I don't do it as much as I'd like to, but I feel wonderful when I do.

Talent is crucial. It needs to be driven by motivation, but blind ambition isn't the key.

I don't believe there's an afterlife - but I don't believe there's an end to life. Consciousness goes beyond the bounds of your body.

The need to protect the environment has emerged as an undeniably important priority for me.

I part-own a bookshop for some strange coincidence of reasons, and it is one of the best things I part-own in my life, or own in my life. I do not know, it just feels great.

I've always cared about issues, always thought through problems. I don't know how much that comes from my personality or my mum.

Modelling, fashion and film have all encouraged me to learn more about issues and to feel empowered enough to do something about them.

Production chains, how consumers can drive change: all these things may seem at odds with fashion, but arguably, they're not.

When I was younger, I definitely did face anti-ginger prejudice. As a child, all teasing hurts, whether it's because you're fat or a different race or have red hair. I had enough comments from a couple of people to make it a sore point.

With acting, if I'm any good at it, my modeling career would never be a hindrance but would rather be a help. And if I'm not, then it doesn't really matter.

I'm just a lipgloss, blush and mascara kind of girl. I like playing with a bright lipstick or a heavy eye... But not together!

Every time I have to try on a wig for work, I get excited about the colour; I've often thought about going for a platinum bob or also raven black, as it looks so great against pale skin. But I always end up being loyal to my red colour.

I found going to school when I was modeling very grounding. It's really kept my perspective on bigger things in my life.

The average Londoner knows just one neighbour. I travel a lot, and I'm always surprised by the strong sense of community in some countries. We've lost something fundamentally human, and we don't even realise it.

Giving triggers social cohesion. It's also the basis for an economy not based on money.

I think the media are so hypocritical a lot of the time in the way they chastise something just so that they can print it again.

I paint - I tend more to abstraction - but not as much as I would like to because of time. I would love to do sculpture - I've toyed with the idea of fitting in a sculpture course.

I was of the type who gets bullied rather than the one who does the bullying, which I'm glad about. I'd rather be that than a bully.

People do make assumptions about models. That's their issue, not mine. It doesn't bother me because I'm comfortable enough in my own skin - I know who I am.

It's hard to appreciate the importance of the rainforest because it seems so far away, but it's vital to the survival of the planet as we know it.

I love modeling but also see it as a platform for the million other things I want to achieve and create in life.

As users of the Internet, we all have a role to play in defining what we want it to be.

Life is shining a light through a magnifying glass on me, looking for me to stumble. I think that's my biggest fear.

I have set up several businesses as social businesses, and I am a great believer that the power of business should be used for good.

I guess I try and learn all the time from every experience in life, so my thinking is a hybrid of everything. I'd have to attribute some of that to my work in the fashion industry - in some obscure way.

I have to admit I've always had quite a complex relationship with modeling and with the idea of advertising: not always knowing what I'm advertising and selling.

It was a scandal when I did French 'Playboy' in 2008, though I was never actually nude in it. I think it's really funny that I'll have a cover of 'Playboy' to show my grandkids.

The narrative of so many fairy tales are timeless in so many different cultures, and they have been since the dawn of man. They represent escapism, but they all feature themes that have such poignancy in a modern world.

I've always gone after fears and tried to stifle them by doing them. It is daunting, but it's more rewarding.

I'm not sure if it's fair to call it a 'fairy tale,' but I really loved 'Mulan,' the Disney film. It was my favorite. I guess it's not really a fairy tale, but you do get Eddie Murphy as a dragon.

The relationship between art and a job is not quite linear, but I really love any and all manifestations of art, really respect any kind of artistic impulse, whether it's paintings and sculptures or really good filmmaking or music. I really see the relationships between these different mediums as very fluid.

I think a lot of the most interesting work in art and in films are often kind of polarized opinions and affect people in very different ways, which may be less successful commercially, but they elicit a dialogue that's quite interesting.

As the generalization goes about the art industry, people can be really challenging and thought-provoking in their thinking and questioning the status quo, and it's really important that the status quo can be questioned and that there are people doing that.

It's not that I don't believe in creativity and innovation and new ideas, and the creativity that comes with fashion, which I really respect. But one of my biggest concerns is just how cheap we expect everything to be.

I'm not against people buying clothes; I think clothes are wonderful, and I'm very materialistic myself - but there's a way of finding a compromise. I just think we can buy less and pay more, to make sure people aren't being exploited.

I think models have a lot less power than they did in the '80s, when there were, like, only 10 supermodels who could dictate the rules, whereas now there's so many, and that changes the power dynamic and makes it a more insecure business.

It doesn't make me very happy to be on my computer all the time. I've never been drawn to that world.

Marilyn Monroe and Vivienne Leigh are real icons of mine. In terms of visual culture, they are both so iconic. There weren't any paparazzi shots of them falling out of taxis, so they will always look so incredible.

I started modeling at 14. It's simple. You respond to what the photographer wants and wear other people's ideas. I got bored with it, though, so I went to university.

In British culture, redheads get teased at school. But I've grown up enough to realize I love my hair.

I love beautiful things; I like having nice clothes, and I can appreciate why other people do - but I've also started to learn more about the impact of what we buy: how things are made, how much you buy and the quality of everything.

I don't personally follow trends; I don't even like the idea of trends. I think it's kind of absurd that you have to change every six months, so I always try and buy things that hopefully I'll like forever, and resonate with me.

I usually have a lip balm in my bag and mascara as well. I don't really wear much make-up, but I like mascara because I've got fair colouring.

I kind of see clothes a bit like role-playing, depending what mood I'm in.

There are so many great, great vintage clothes to find; there's a whole territory unexplored there.

There's an inherent contradiction between appreciating the beauty of clothes and creativity and individuality, and the waste around the ideas of trends and seasons.

Acting is something I've done since I was six years old, performing for my mum and my family in the living room, and I do it because my heart's in it.

I'll always try to follow my heart into things I love, and modelling is not something I'm dreaming of pursuing forever.