Appearing on the cover of the 2012 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition may have helped her career, but supermodel Kate Upton says it did little for her self-esteem.
"After my first Sports Illustrated cover, I felt terrible about myself for a solid month," Upton reveals in the September issue of Elle. "Every single guy I met was either married or about to be married, and I felt like I was their bachelor present or something.
"I'm not a toy, I'm a human. I'm not here to be used. I am a grown woman."
The 21-year-old also revealed that people assume she's dumb because she's a model.
"People deal with models like they are children. They think they can pull one over on you," she told the magazine. "It's actually funny. I'm always like, 'I'm about to pull something on you, and you're so focused on thinking I'm dumb you're not even going to know.'"
Upton has appeared on the cover of numerous publications, modeled for GUESS and Victoria's Secret, and in 2013 placed eighth on Maxim's Hot 100 list of the most beautiful women in the world.
And while her first Sports Illustrated cover may have brought some negativity into her life, it couldn't have been that bad — Upton went on to grace the cover of the 2013 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition as well.