Elle Macpherson thinks the supermodels if the 90s were so successful because of their diversity.

Elle Macpherson says supermodels of the 1990s were unique

Elle Macpherson says supermodels of the 1990s were unique

The 59-year-old beauty – who was nicknamed The Body – has a “profound appreciation” for her career and thinks she and fellow catwalk queens Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell and Claudia Schiffer were so successful because they didn’t fit the stereotype of traditional beauty.

She told Hello! magazine: “I think the supermodel movement facilitated the uniqueness of women. We were all so diverse. You didn’t have to be a blonde-haired, blue-eyed American girl.

“That’s why we loved that group of girls, as they were so different from each other and they leant into their uniqueness.

Elle only found her career truly took off when she gave in to how much she was being celebrated for athletic figure and knew it was an asset to be proud of.

Asked if she ever struggled with people putting more emphasis on her looks than her personality, she said: “That’s a really great question. I think in the beginning it was quite difficult to know myself. Once I did, my career took off.

“Once I accepted; ‘Here I am, I’m an Amazonian, brown-haired brown-eyed girl who is athletic and has that Aussie give-it-a-go attitude’, I realised that set me apart.

"Rather than trying to hide the fact I had this athletic body, I would accentuate it. That became something I was synonymous with.”

Elle urged people wanting to follow in her footsteps to celebrate what makes them different.

She said: “If you want a long-lasting career, it’s important to find your unique beauty. There’s nobody like you and it will set you apart.

“The more confident you are, the more you shine and the more attractive you become.”