Whistleblower ex-model claims agent once told her to swallow cotton balls to suppress her appetite

Former fashion model worked for the agency as a teen

A former model, who was signed by NEXT Management, has claimed that her agent once encouraged her to “swallow” cotton balls.

The former fashion model, Esmeralda Seay-Reynolds, reflected on signing with the modelling agency while she was a teenager during a recent interview with Variety. She claimed that at the age of 16, she received some unsafe advice from her agent about what to do in order to stay thin.

“I remember my agent saying, ‘Cotton balls are organic, so it’s fine if you just swallow them to make yourself feel full,’” she said.

When Variety asked Joel Wilkenfeld, co-founder of NEXT Management, about the cotton ball incident, he said: “If a model would have brought that to our attention, that agent would have been fired right there on the spot.”

During her conversation with Variety, the former runway model recalled another experience that she had when signed with NEXT management. Seay-Reynolds claimed that her agents signed her up for a 2014 photoshoot in Reykjavík, where she had to pose in the freezing cold.

“We pull up to a glacier above freezing, ice-covered waters. And [the photographer] parks the car, and he’s like, ‘Climb!’” she recalled.

She also added that she and another model spent 30 minutes walking around those glaciers in slip dresses and heels, while the photographer and his assistant allegedly wore parkas. Seay-Reynolds went on to claim that when she tried to tell the photographer that she couldn’t change her clothes on this glacier, he shut her down.

“He made us change up there,” she continued. “We had to get naked. His assistant grabbed my arm when I [protested] and was like, ‘You’re not leaving. You will take too much time.’”

The former model then recalled how a stylist stepped in when the photographer allegedly put her safety at risk during the photoshoot.

“The photographer even asked us to jump over a crevice on top of the glacier, which plunged at least 20 feet,” she added. “Luckily, the stylist on the shoot was like, ‘That’s not happening. She will die.’”

(Getty Images)

She went on to explain that during the next day of the photoshoot, she had to lay on frozen lava beds in the snow, before going to one of the hot springs in Iceland. She described the pain that she felt when walking towards the hot spring and how the photographer allegedly handled it.

“If you step on one, it will melt your flesh off. So, you have to stay on this marked path for safety. But he says, ‘Get off the path. And watch your footing,’” she recalled. “You’re told to do it, and you do it. And he is the adult, he is in charge.”

Seay-Reynolds said that for another part of the photo shoot, she noticed a large hole with a “Danger. Do Not Enter” sign on it. She alleged that the photographer removed the sign before they headed into a cave, which had stalagmites stretching across the floor of it. She described how her safety and career were at risk, after climbing over to one spot to pose with a fellow model.

“Ice that will rip right through you if you slip,” she said. “There was no help, no medic. If you don’t do what they say, they will blacklist you. And that not only will eff up your future career, but everything that you’ve done and suffered up until that point will mean nothing.”

She noted that when she returned to the United States, she complained about the photographer to her agents, who allegedly responded by saying: “Yeah, he’s known for this.” Seay-Reynolds, who was 17 at the time of this photoshoot, also claimed to Variety that she was never paid for the 18-hour days of work.

When asked to comment on the photo shoot, Wilkenfeld said: “When we send models to photo shoots, we vet the people, and we hope that that model would call us if they were exposed to conditions such as this. The unfortunate part is we’re not on every shoot.”

The photographer and producer also spoke to Variety about the photo shoot, with claims that the work conditions were safe. The photographer also alleged that Seay-Reynolds wasn’t eating during the photoshoot and contacted NEXT management about his concerns. He also said that he was “upset” with the agency for sending a model who appeared to have struggles with an eating disorder to the photo shoot, especially as it was a destination project.

This isn’t the first time that Seay-Reynolds has spoken candidly about her experiences in the modelling industry. During an interview with Real Women/Real Stories in December 2021, she recalled how her career as a teen model felt like an “insane whirlwind”.

“Looking back, I was very young. For me, as a person who is very competitive and used to working very hard, to work really hard and have it not come to anything is very frustrating,” she explained. “I think I felt like my body was the one thing I could control, so I just sort of went crazy.”

She then revealed that by the age of 17, she started to have some health struggles, including a seizure and liver failure. She also noted that she was struggling with an eating disorder. From there, she said that she left this career behind.

“My agents actually pulled me out of modelling so that I could gain weight because people were complaining that I wasn’t fitting in the clothes and I looked too ‘vascular,’” she said. “It was very bad. I quit modelling not just because of that but the stress was just immense.”

Seay-Reynolds said that she later checked herself into Evergreen Eating Disorder Recovery Center in Denver, Colorado. She acknowledged how this was the right treatment option for her, adding: “Recovery was where I learned what kind of people I want in my life, what kind of life I want to have and also how hard I’m willing to work for it.”

The Independent has contacted NEXT Management and Seay-Reynolds for comment.