As Miranda Priestley might say, ‘a million girls would kill for this job’. Well, Ruth Crilly is here to tell you why that might… not… quite be true. 

We’re absolutely delighted to welcome fashion model turned online content creator Ruth Crilly to Penarth to celebrate the publication of her new memoir, How Not to be a Supermodel. Ruth will be in conversation with Sasha Pallari, host of the ‘SPILL’ podcast and founder of the global #FILTERDROP campaign.

How Not to be a Supermodel:

England. 2001. Ruth Crilly has embarked on a law degree and is destined for a life of normality and stability. That is, of course, until she sticks a polaroid of herself in a box somewhere in Birmingham and is scouted by one of the biggest agencies in the world.

Flung between Redditch and Milan, telesales and Vogue, wizard cloaks and red shearling coats, follow Ruth through a rip-roaring, hilarious decade of not-quite-making-it as a supermodel. Fuelled by little more than cigarettes and a fear of being measured she criss-crosses the world in pursuit of fame and fortune.

Offering a glimpse into both the high glamour and juddering reality of a by-gone era, this is a comic memoir gracefully relayed by a pessimistic, sardonic disaster-magnet.

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Ruth Crilly is an award-winning online writer and content creator respected for her honest beauty reviews and loved for her hilarious, unfiltered life updates. After spending over a decade as a fashion model, she became one of the UK’s first social media stars in 2010 and her eponymous blog has been read more than 50 million times.

Sasha Pallari is a professional makeup artist, content creator, vlogger, podcaster of ‘SPILL’, public speaker, writer, and founder of the global campaign #FILTERDROP. The campaign led to an ASA policy change, prohibiting the use of filters to promote beauty products. As an authority in her field, Sasha has been featured in BBC News, VOGUE, Stylist, Grazia, and other publications.