With a successful modeling and acting career behind her, a double first in History of Art from Cambridge and an impressive CV of charitable work, it's hard to believe that Lily Cole would ever doubt herself. But the 30 year-old model turned entrepreneur has opened up to the Telegraph, saying that she never believed herself beautiful before she became a model.

"It was very confidence building because I was being validated in a way that I hadn't been before. I hadn't considered myself attractive before and suddenly I was being told I was," says Cole.

Cole was just 14 when she was scouted by Storm model agency while having lunch at a burger bar in Soho. Two years later she was on the cover of Vogue.

"It all happened quite quickly. It felt quite magical. And I was really interested in travelling and I was always curious about meeting other creative people," she says.

She later juggled acting and the occasional modeling job with her degree at King's College Cambridge, admitting that the balance was hard to maintain at times. Cole even starred on Dr Who during breaks in revision for her final exams. "Sometimes I am like how the f*** did I do that, let alone why?" she says.

"I am ambitious on myself, if that makes sense. I'm hard on myself. It's not so much for other people - like parents or anything - it's for myself, which I don't think is a very healthy thing. You can be too hard on yourself," she adds.

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Cole, who now has a one-and-a-half year old daughter, Wylde, with Portuguese tech entrepreneur Kwame Ferreira, goes on to say that becoming a mother has helped her to put things into perspective.

"I always knew I wanted a child. It is just wonderful. It has added something to my life. It is very grounding."