As a teenager, Becky Magson was bullied and subjected to a terrifying attack which left her confidence at rock bottom.
But now the 31-year-old, from North Yorkshire, is a seasoned model and blogger. She talks to Ashley Barnard

BECKY MAGSON could have been forgiven for abandoning a potential modelling career before she even got started. Her first casting turned out to involve a fraudulent company taking money from young girls and promising them fame.

She walked away and pursued her career on her own terms. “It was fortunate that I had not given any money to the company,” she says.

“When I arrived for the casting I was met by a lot of girls who had paid hundreds of pounds.”

Undeterred, Becky, from Forcett, entered a competition run by a pharmaceutical company looking for the face of a product line.

“I got to the top three and even though I didn’t win, it got me thinking more seriously about it,” she says.

Becky approached some modelling agencies but found they made her feel uncomfortable – so when she discovered she could find her own work over the internet using reputable sites, she felt it was the right direction for her.

“I live in a small village near Richmond but I have access to a huge online community,” she says. “I use Twitter and Facebook a lot, and just started using them to market myself as a model, and develop contacts, so people slowly started getting to know me in the industry and then started approaching me for work.”

Becky began fashion modelling, but said she was always cautious with the work she accepted.

“I would hear about some of the things girls would do because they thought they would get famous – like doing nude shots – and it is so worrying.

“I never do a shoot without my boyfriend in the room with me, and if a photographer has a problem with that, I know something is not quite right.”

Becky was asked to take part in a boudoir lingerie shoot after she had only been modelling for a few months. “Once I had done a couple of shoots I got more confident – I found it quite liberating. It is really creative and you are developing a persona to match the surroundings.”

She now specialises in boudoirstyle lingerie shoots and reviews underwear for top designers.

Although she insists she is not confident enough to branch out into catwalk work, she regularly strips down to her underwear for glamorous magazine features.

Becky said her fiancé, Sean Connolly, loves what she does because he enjoys seeing her so confident in herself – but she was not always like that.

“When I was at school I was bullied for being tall and skinny, and when I was 16, I got beaten up,” says Becky.

“It left me really badly shaken. I was too scared to go to college because I saw the people who attacked me there.

“I would not have ever dreamed of being where I am now then. I couldn’t even leave the house and stayed very close to my parents when I did.”

But when she met Sean, he slowly helped her regain her confidence. “It took a few years to get through that and to feel comfortable being on my own but I got there and now I’m doing my dream job,” she says.

After building her portfolio of lingerie work, Becky started to write about the styles. “I really got into specialist underwear so I set up my blog, Becky’s Boudoir, to review items I had tried and tell people what worked and what didn’t.

“I try to give constructive criticism rather than just slate anything I don’t think works, like some bloggers do, and I now get sent bras to try from big names such as Freya and Wonderbra.”

The way Becky controls her own career suits her well because she suffers from fibromyalgia – a condition that affects the nerves in the body which causes widespread pain – something that has prevented her from having certain jobs that involved a lot of standing up.

“I used to work in retail, but had to leave because I would be in constant pain from standing up all day,” says Becky.

“If I have a bad day I can work on my blog from home, or if I do have a shoot, often it will only be half a day and I can take rests when I need it.”

Becky has recently been asked by Wonderbra to be an ambassador for National Cleavage Day on March 30, and hopes to increase her writing by reviewing for different companies in the future.

“I’m not sure what National Cleavage Day will entail yet as I have just been invited to get involved but it is definitely exciting to have been asked,” she says.

Her blog has recently celebrated its first birthday and Becky is determined it will see bigger and brighter things this year.

“I feel like I have done so well to get where I am today – but I am proactive and don’t rest on my laurels,” says Becky.

“Who knows what I will be doing this year. It’s an exciting time.”