It’s Wednesday morning, we’re trudging through the last week of summer (“the last week of summer”), and it’s about time we all began to feel a little bad about ourselves.
At least financially. This week, the highest-paid models of 2016 were revealed, and the most important thing is that none of us even earn close. Behold the top ten:
Gisele Bundchen: $30,500,000 (like, in a year — she earned this in 2016)
Adriana Lima: $10,500,000
Karlie Kloss: $10,000,000
Kendall Jenner: $10,000,000
Gigi Hadid: $9,000,000
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley: $9,000,000
Cara Delevingne: $8,500,000
Candice Swanepoel: $7,000,000
Liu Wen: $7,000,000
Miranda Kerr: $6,000,000
So there’s that. But what makes the list even more “!!!” is that Bundchen retired from the catwalk last year, but has still topped the list for the 14th year running. Plus, she earned the same amount last year, so girlfriend is certainly not hurting for cash. (Shout-out to her deals with Chanel, Carolina Herrera, and Pantene, plus all her own lines.)
But what’s interesting still is compared to how much we hear about them, the social media posse — Jenner and Hadid particularly — have earned a lot but not as much as I’m sure we thought they had. (I mean, look: I was really psyched to make my phone payments on time, so anything on this list is a freakish amount of money to me — but still.) When you think about how much we hear about them, how much social media influence they have, and how we’ve seen their precious faces in and around every brand, it’s a little shocking to think that compared to Gisele, they’re not earning a ton. (I mean, again: they are. But you know what I mean.)
So is social media creating a bubble? Do we think, because we hear about them, that they rule the school? Is the secret to deals and to independent lines versus old-school modelling? Is it about being a businesswoman (ala Kloss)? There’s a big difference between $30 million and $9 (like: $21 million specifically), so are we either going to see their rates increase or is the era of the millions-and-millions-of-millions per year over?
Meanwhile, I got a birthday coupon sent to me yesterday that I plan on using today so there’s an exciting thing for us all to know.
