What You Learn At Victoria's Secret Angel School

As a fashion editor, I have encountered my fair share of beautiful models but the Victoria's Secret Angels have a certain je ne sais quoi that can't be chalked up to copious bronzer, hair extensions, and oversized wings. They are sexy, yes, but also...so nice! And charming! They step into a room and they own it. In a moment of near-psychosis, I decided that I had to become one of them. This is my story.

I show up to Victoria's Secret corporate headquarters in Midtown for my first day of "Angel School" wearing all white. Very appropriate, I think. I proudly, even a little smugly, tell this to my teacher, Jillian Straus. "My rule of thumb is to tell them no patterns, don't wear white on camera, because those things don't look great on camera," Straus tells me. Oh, oops. Strike one.

Straus is the head of Straus Strategic Communications and she's in charge of media training all of the Victoria's Secret Angels. That intoxication you feel in the presence of a Victoria's Secret Angel (whether in real life or via your TV screen), the giddiness that inexplciably washes over you when you see those glowing smiles, the sparkling eyes, that's all Straus. And as part of my "Angel transformation," she's going to teach me how to smile and shill with the best of them.

I sit down in an innocuous conference room where there is a large table littered with papers and push-up bras and an iPad camera fixed on me. I'm then instructed to deliver a spiel about a new set of Victoria's Secret products, as well as articulate the brand history. Simple enough, right? (Let's forget for a moment that when it comes to natural disposition, where the Angels are saccharine and seraphic, I am, well, sarcastic.) But being an Angel means a lot of television time: In addition to all of the pre-press that the Angels do in anticipation for the fashion show, they also make in-store appearances, film segments for morning shows, and go to events to represent the brand. And when they're in front of the camera, the Angels don't just light it up, they set it on fire.

I just have to learn how to create a spark.

"Eye contact is so key," Straus tells me. "The other way to connect is by smiling. The girls know that they have to smile on the runway, but they are also used to working on other fashion runways where they don't smile so it is sometimes really difficult for them to get comfortable really having a big smile. Something I tell everyone is that the camera really flattens you out; so having a bigger smile than normal is so critical. You don't want to have an unrelatable image.

Then Straus films me while I try to regurgitate bullet points about the latest bra in the Dream Angels collection. You have to be your "biggest self," she tells me. "You almost have to go to this overly bubbly place even if it doesn't feel natural to just look normal." She suggests a "power position": "Feet should be spread a little bit apart...you need a strong planted stance." I feel manic and humiliated.

Still, I press on. If the other Angels have done it, I have to do it, too. Somewhere, around my fourth take, I have a brilliant realization. "You know what would really help me be great at this?" I ask Jillian excitedly. "Tequila. Do the Angels, like, have go-go juice like on Toddlers & Tiaras? Maybe some wine." "Um…no," Straus replies. I am truly distressed now. How do they do this? Three words, Straus replies: "Hit, bridge [that's the power position], and sparkle."

By the end of my training, I don't feel like I've "hit" anything but I think I'm starting to sparkle. Faintly.