Gemma Ward: “I was told my looks were going to fade at 20”

She was discovered at 14, made her Australian Fashion Week debut the next year, and was the youngest model ever to land the cover of US Vogue.

But at the age of 20 and reportedly commanding $20,000 per catwalk strut, Gemma Ward disappeared. Without any explanation, without a backwards glance.

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Now, the fresh-faced Perth stunner has opened up about her haute couture hiatus, revealing she was hit hard when industry insiders told the model her good looks were in decline.

“I wanted to focus on things I could develop and get better at because for a period of time I had people telling me, ‘You’ve got to do this when you’re young’, ‘Your looks are going to fade’, ‘You’re not going to get better’,” Gemma told Elle magazine. “Like, you hit your teenage years and everything goes downhill – it’s kind of horrible to think.”

It was around this time Gemma put on weight and was openly battling depression following the death of her ex-boyfriend, actor Heath Ledger in 2008. So she decided to walk away.

“I actually couldn’t go on. But I also was very sure of what I needed to do,” she said. “There was some healing that needed to happen.”

The healing happened as Gemma found love with photographer David Letts, welcomed her daughter Naia in 2013, and concentrated on her acting – appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, writing and music.

But the lure of the catwalk proved too difficult to resist, and Gemma surprised the fashion world with her model comeback, walking in the Prada spring/summer 2015 show at Milan Fashion Week.

Now 28 and happy being back in the public eye, the model explains there’s only one thing in her life that matters to her.

“[Naia has] changed my life for the better, she’s my reason to live and my reason to grow as a person. I feel like I’m more carefree, but I also have direction.”

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