As Emily Ratajkowski balances the demands of her spotlight, where she’s the subject as much as the sculptor, her fans are rooting for a boundless career that’s hers to control.
Earlier this year, the buzz around Ratajkowski shifted. As a successful model and actress who’s appeared on numerous magazine covers and in acclaimed films, she has been a fixture in the public eye as a faceted and universal beauty. In her wide range of work, she could catch the attention of those watching in theaters, singing along to music videos, staring up at advertisements, or taking in fashion shows. But this year, instead of fans asking friends if they’d seen Ratajkowski, they were asking if they’d heard what she had to say.
In a viral essay for The Cut, she wrote about how her life has unfolded at the center of a lens, and the power others have had over images of her body. She laid it out intimately, as if she were discussing her past with a loved one, and gave countless readers a glimpse into her experiences and mindset. By the time fans were finished reading, they joined her in discussing the question, “Who owns an image, and what responsibility do we all have to the person in it?”
Since the essay was published, Ratajkowski has secured a book deal—an essay collection titled My Body, which will be released by Metropolitan Books in 2022—and continues to expand her direct-to-consumer apparel collection INAMORATA to more than 27 million Instagram followers. Her modelling career has a global presence, and she’s currently the face of L’Oréal’s haircare line Kerastase. And personally, she’s expecting her first child with husband Sebastian Bear-McClard, and shared her thoughts about it in another thought-provoking essay for Vogue digital cover story.
As Ratajkowski balances the demands of her spotlight, where she’s the subject as much as the sculptor, her fans are rooting for a boundless career that’s hers to control.
