Gigi Hadid was made to cry by modelling agencies who informed she had to lose weight.

The 20-year-old beauty was told she had to shed ''a lot'' of pounds at the beginning of her career, if she wanted to get regular work in the fashion and beauty industry.

She said: ''A lot of them were like, 'You have to lose a lot of weight. I would cry at night and my mom would be like, 'We're going to find the right people.' ''

Gigi was eventually given the chance to be the face of a Tom Ford campaign because it's ''cool'' to have a girl with a curvy figure.

The former volleyball player told Daily Mail Australia: ''People were like, 'Oh so we can have a girl with like thighs and a butt in a Tom Ford campaign, cool.' ''

The fashion icon has always insisted on being a ''healthy role model'' and continues to live up to that expectation.

She said: ''I just want to be a healthy role model and I haven't swayed from that at all.''

However, Gigi doesn't hide away from the fact she has slightly larger thighs than an average model and admitted she used to eat like a man and didn't care about her body because all she cared about was being ''the best volleyball player''.

She added: ''My thighs were huge, they were like rock! I had like crazy muscles and I (ate) like a man - more than the man that I eat like now, like a bigger man - and it was crazy but at the time I didn't care what my body looked like, I just wanted to be the best volleyball player I could be so it didn't really matter to me.''