When up-and-coming model Rosie Mortimer did her first Vogue shoot for Mario Testino, the magazine didn't even pay her. She explains in today's Telegraph that this was one of many reasons she decided to quit the biz, aside from the fact that becoming a supermodel is about as common as Anna Wintour going out in public in a ponytail.

She met Testino at a party when she was 18. Her agents thrust her into his line of sight like a bunny for Hef at the Playboy mansion:

Two girls who worked for my agency grabbed me. One whispered: "That's Mario Testino, go and walk past him."

"Which one?" I asked. I received a withering look.

"The grey-haired man over there—Rosie, you should really know these things."

I soon spotted a middle-aged man with a group of models sniffing around him, all desperately trying to get noticed... I wondered how to go about this without seeming too uncool. I took a deep breath and walked in his direction, swerving at the last minute. Suddenly I heard an Italian voice. "Dalin', you are bootiful! What agency are you with?"

A month later I was sent on a Vogue shoot with Testino. There were several other models there, but it was a huge honour for us all—so much so that Vogue paid us only in kudos.

There was also this other time Mortimer did an audition for a TV commercial in which she danced with rain-soaked tights around her boobs to Beyoncé in front of multiple cameras and cackling casting directors. Sounds like a real self-esteem booster!

Britain's next top model? No, thanks [Telegraph]