The MouldBreaking Model

Ben Whit, 29, from Guildford, is a plus-size male model – the UK’s first

I used to joke around with my partner at the time: ‘I could be a model.’ As you do. One day, she got me a photo shoot through Groupon. The woman at the studio suggested I build a profile on a website called StarNow. I thought I’d give it a go, as a bit of a laugh. Then Bridge Models were looking for a man 2XL or above. So, I applied. Before that, I was a builder. I still do my day job. I’m a lorry driver now.

At my first shoot, I was nervous. We went through 70 or 80 outfits. That’s a different type of graft. I’ve done fit work with Calvin Klein in Amsterdam. I’ve been to Dubai, Switzerland. I did six weeks in Greece for a Channel 4 TV show called

Naked Beach, which was all about body confidence.

I haven’t always been confident. My hair was thinning at a really young age. I struggled with that for years, trying to comb it over. Since my partner told me to shave it off a couple of years ago, I feel liberated.

My group of mates are quite manly. A lot of them do manual work, straight down the pub on a Friday night. They don’t talk about their feelings. A couple of years ago, I asked one of them, ‘How do you feel about yourself?’ I don’t think he knew what to say. Since then, my mates will sometimes text me and say, ‘I’m feeling a bit down about this...’ I said, ‘Look, you’ve got to be happy in yourself first before trying to make other people happy.’

Men message me about hair loss: ‘Do you think I should shave it off?’ Or they come to me and say, ‘I can’t find clothes that look nice on me – do you think this will suit me?’ Even if you can just make one person feel better, to me, that means more than anything.

I believe that, with more men representing the ‘normal’ male body, other men who look like that will start to think, ‘If he’s doing that as a job, then actually there’s not much wrong with me.’ @benrwhit