Beauty, Disrupted

by Carre Otis

  Photograph by John Roca/New York Daily News Archive, courtesy of Getty Images.

  Somewhere between celebrating a cakeless twentieth birthday and the time I resolved to end my troubled marriage, my long battle with an eating disorder spiraled out of control.

  This is me at the height of my anorexia, just before I began obsessively training for the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition, working with my therapist, and preparing to leave Mickey.

  Years earlier, during my break from modeling, I lived on “The Farm,” a co-op community in Sebastopol, California. That’s me, second from the right, sitting next to my boyfriend, Ethan, in the hat and leather jacket.

  It was then that I met the first of several profound spiritual teachers in my life, Lama Tsultrim Alione. Tsultrim is on the left and her daughter Aloka is in the center.

  I resumed the healing journey I began in those days during a later trip to Nepal. Here I am in the Himalayas near a “mani” rock (a formation inscribed with the prayer of the Buddha of Compassion) . . .

  and in Dharamsala, India, on a visit to see HH Karmapa and HH the Dalai Lama.

  I am at peace here visiting with my sister . . .

  and with my mom and maternal grandmother. I have been fortunate enough to reconcile with all of my family members . . .

  to have married a wonderful man . . .

  to have given life to two beautiful girls . . .

  Jade and . . .

  Kaya . . .

  and now to tell my story in the hope of inspiring others along the path.

  About the Author

  Carré Otis has long been one of the most recognizable faces in modeling, headlining in campaigns for Guess, Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Revlon. As a supermodel, Carré has appeared on the covers of Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan, and has worked with many of the world’s greatest fashion photographers, including Richard Avedon, Herb Ritts, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Patrick Demarchelier, David Bailey, and Guy Bourdin. While married to actor Mickey Rourke, Carré took an extended hiatus from modeling. When she returned, she also became an advocate for young women in and out of the industry. Carré has appeared on nationally televised programs, offering her unique insight into the business of beauty and the high price it demands. Carré lives in Colorado with her husband and two daughters.

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  Credits

  Unless otherwise credited, photographs in the photo section are courtesy of Carré Otis.

  Cover design by Andrea Cardenas

  Cover photograph © by Bruno Bisang

  Copyright

  This book is not intended to harm anyone in my past. In sharing my life experience with readers, my aim is to foster self-awareness and a measure of self-protection in young women of the present and future. In a few places, I’ve changed or left out entirely the names of individuals who have played a role in my life in order to protect their privacy. I have also, in some places, altered details, locales, and other specifics to be sure these ­people are not recognizable, but in no instance have I altered or changed the stories that I am sharing with you.

  BEAUTY, DISRUPTED. Copyright © 2011 by Carré Otis. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  FIRST EDITION

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBN 978-0-06-202445-9

  EPub Edition © OCTOBER 2011 ISBN: 9780062092663

  11 12 13 14 15 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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