Oh! My! God! I Love it!

This book – my book – is for you. It will inspire you. It will challenge you – I will challenge you – but the interpretation is yours.

I’m making this book because this is forever. When I’m a hundred years old, someone can open the book and say “My God! He was crazy!” or “My God! He was a leader!” Most things now: after one month, it’s gone – no one remembers it anymore, people don’t download it, they don’t see it, they don’t care. This book is here!

For me, it’s a big thing. I left my country without a word of English, and came to another country and became who I am, and learned a lot, and I’m working with the best people. In Brazil, I’m someone who did something. I did something in this country, I did so much.

Everything is possible if you try harder.

Your values change when you’re in your 40s, the only people that are important to impress are the people close to you, the people you care about. The people you don’t care about just don’t matter because they don’t know you. Everything you do and everyone you want to notice is the people around you that you love. That’s why I wanted to do this so much. That’s why I worked so hard to make this happen. It’s not just a European dream: it’s a dream I’ve had for many, many years.

I don’t want to impress people because no one’s going to be rougher on me than me, and others criticise things because they don’t have the courage to do it themselves. If you criticise things where you have no experience, that doesn’t mean anything to me, but I listen to people who know, who try, and who have the courage.

There are things in the images that no one else can see. I’ve pulled out of this book so many things because I thought they were not perfect when maybe they were good enough. I’ve been shooting it for 3½ years, and I keep doing more shoots because I want perfection. That’s the whole point.

Perfection inspires me and is my enemy: I have a hundred foundations in my makeup box because I always have to do this skin the way I want it. And I keep buying because I think I’ll get the best. And I keep buying and keep buying and always looking for something better. I always want to be there, and I always want to be in front of people who don’t do it, and who don’t try.

I want to dress comfortably but many people are not comfortable with me! I want to please myself.

My Grandma said, when I was young, “I have to invest in you because I want you to become famous before I die.” “But you’ll never die!” “Well, if you don’t die when you’re young, when you’re old you can’t escape it. And you’ll be ugly!” She had such a sense of humour.

It’s my time to bring something new to the table: a book, OMG!

I dedicate this book to the most important people in my life: my mum, Maria Gloria, and my best friends Marianna and David Hodgson, and Neni Almeida. Thank you all for being in my life and for the support you have given me throughout my journey so far.