She was only 14 when she began modeling, and by 19 she had won a competition to become a Victoria’s Secret Angel. At first, the glitz and glamour were mesmerizing, but there came a day when it all fell apart.
In “I’m No Angel,” Kylie Bisutti poignantly and honestly tells a story that turns out to be a powerful testimony to Christ. She was a naive girl from a small town in Nevada who moved to New York City to get a chance at the big time.
When she got there, she discovered the big time came at a high price. It included living in a roach-infested apartment with a roommate who was smoking dope. It meant being groped by a photographer and barely escaping his dirty paws.
But despite it all — the cattiness of other models, the constant push to lose weight and the gnawing loneliness — Kylie kept pursuing a small-town girl’s dream of making it big.
At 16, she had become a Christian and decided to turn her life around, but the allure of money and fame was too tempting, and she continued with her modeling career. On the day she achieved her goal of becoming a Victoria’s Secret Angel, she strutted down the nationally televised runway with millions of eyes on her.
By then, she had married the man of her dreams, and although her career meant long spells of separation from each other, he didn’t want to squelch her plans.
She later discovered her husband was quietly praying for her. And he had plenty to pray about because when men looked at this gorgeous woman in scanty lingerie, he knew they weren’t just thinking, “Oh, she’s lovely.”
The book is a riveting conversion story — but also a scathing indictment of the fashion industry that promotes the belief that women can never be thin enough, sexy enough or pretty enough.
I kept wondering why her parents let this young girl go through this particular nightmare. All they needed to say was a firm no when she begged them to go live in New York. They later failed to heed the warning signals when she began starving herself to lose weight. They kept caving in because, as she put it, “I was their little girl and they wanted me to have the world.”
There were many false angels on Kylie’s path, including agents who pretended to have her best interests at heart but were exploiting her to make money. Fortunately, when she finally realized her childhood dream clashed with her Christian beliefs, she turned her back on the lucrative world of lingerie modeling.
Her story reminds us that sometimes we may be filled with bitter regret over our past, but the prophet Jeremiah assures us, “I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil.” He adds, “When you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you.”
Kylie’s journey took her into a dark world where X-rated parties and drugs were considered normal, but she eventually discovered the Lord had better plans for her. And in writing this book, she was willing to admit her mistakes in the hopes of helping others. Today she dedicates herself to spreading the message that true beauty comes from within.
She was no angel, that is true, and many of us can relate to that. But her story assures us that even when we are in very dangerous places, there are still real angels in heaven watching over us.
