Kate Upton Defends Her Assets: Where I Grew Up, Curves Are ‘A Great Thing’

Kate Upton is defending the assets that made her famous.

After years of being criticized as “too curvy” for the modeling industry, the highly successful Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model said she loves the way her body is shaped.

“Where I grew up, it was considered a great thing to have a curvy body to fill out a bathing suit,” Upton said during an interview for the cover of Glamour magazine. “For that to be a negative was so confusing to me.” (PHOTOS: Gigi Hadid Defends Her Assets On Instagram: ‘Yes, I Have Boobs’)

“And besides, when I started working, I was booked constantly, mostly for catalog work. So when people were saying, ‘Oh, she doesn’t have the right look for a model,’ I thought, ‘Then why am I working every single day?'”

She said the diets other models followed just didn’t work for her.

“At first I tried to diet to become their image, but eventually I realized that it wasn’t realistic — that this is just the shape of my body. So I had to block them out. I think that the people who are the loudest about wanting to change you are the people with the least amount of vision and creativity.”

Upton even revealed she used to be bullied for the way she looks back in school. (RELATED: Kate Upton Wears Her Underwear For A Night Out)

“Kids can be cruel, and they used to make fun of me for having long legs and bushy eyebrows. My mom would flip through magazines and say, ‘Look, all these models have that too.’ I decided I wanted to be a model.”