At the Business of Fashion beauty forum, the supermodel talked discovering her sensuality and using her influence alongside meaningful beauty brands
Pamela Anderson is doing things her way.
In conversation with Moj Mahdara for The Business of Beauty Global Forum hosted by The Business of Fashion, the model got candid about owning her sexuality and dealing with the perceptions attached to it.
When asked by Mahdara (who is co-founder of BeautyUnited and the Managing Partner of Kinship Ventures) how she remains so resolute yet poised and soft-natured throughout her life, Anderson said: “I wanted to be in charge of my own sexuality and sensuality. I didn’t want other people to be in charge of that for me.”
Her relationship with sensuality and self-image were shaped from a young age.
The New York Times best-selling author further explained, “When it comes to beauty, I pretty much grew up at the Playboy mansion. I was surrounded by every kind of beautiful woman you could think of.”
And she observed how those women looked and carried themselves. “I wanted to be sexy too. I found that was powerful and interesting,” Anderson added.
The 55-year-old icon also got candid about her beauty journey, recalling the misogyny she experienced when booking gigs the industry (like when she was walked into a hotel meeting with a figure from a big makeup brand thinking it was an audition).
“As being a Playboy [figure] people had the wrong idea. I just felt like I had to turn this around somehow and share some of the superficial attention with something more meaningful.”
Though sometimes penned as “too difficult” to work with due to her long list of criteria, she became more mindful of the brands she worked with, including MAC, which brought Anderson on as a spokesperson in 2005 for its Viva Glam campaign raising awareness and money towards HIV/AIDS research and programs.
“We’re all trying to make ourselves beautiful so we are respected, admired and loved, so these products have to come from a loving place,” Anderson continued.
The former Baywatch star turned blonde bombshell decided to share parts of her life on screen with her Netflix documentary Pamela, a love story, released in January.
She told at the premiere that going back in time to create the film was an “emotional” process. “It’s just all these wonderful memories and hard memories too. But I wanted to go back into those feelings and feel those feelings.”