I am a strong Ukrainian girl, that is why I work a lot.

There is all this controversy that women and girls are too skinny or too overweight. I say to just do martial arts and everything will be okay. You will tone up your body and find a confidence you can't find just sitting around watching TV and hanging out with friends.

I feel like confidence is something that ebbs and flows. I was given a lot of love and attention from my family growing up, so for sure I had a natural confidence.

I've always been attracted to characters that were interesting to me, and different.

Before, being a model, it was just a job, and I was making fun of it. But today, I take my career more seriously. The fact that a reader may buy an Armani item because she'd seen it on me in a magazine is very important to me. So much so that I intend to launch my own label.

I think I'm a very pretty girl. I'm never going to pretend to think otherwise. There are even days I feel I'm fabulously hot and sexy. I'm grateful for my looks. My family is doing well because of them. I can make career choices and turn down movies because of them and I have been making money from them for 17 years. My looks are who I am.

I guess the most difficult thing for me was living up to my mom's expectations. I was always scared that if I didn't do things in this certain way, then my mom just wouldn't think I was great. That's something that was difficult for me growing up.