Modeling is a glamorous gig, but it can also be harmful to your health, says Natalia Vodianova. The Russian-born beauty, whose face and figure have been used to sell Calvin Klein, Yves Saint Laurent, and Marc Jacobs, says she used to be a scrawny mess, down to just 106 pounds with her hair falling out. “It just sort of happened to me without me knowing it,’’ Vodianova told us yesterday. “My weight was never an issue before I started modeling.’’

The consequences of the catwalk are the subject of next week’s “Health Matters: Weight and Wellness in the World of Fashion,’’ a panel discussion at Harvard Business School sponsored by the Harris Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. (Vodianova will be joined on the panel by Vogue editor Anna Wintour and designer Michael Kors.)

Reached yesterday in London where she lives with her husband and three children, Vodianova said many girls begin modeling at a very young age — 15 and 16 — and then try to maintain that same slender look as they develop. “To be a model is a gift that you are born with. Not everyone is meant to look like that,’’ she says. “The industry should employ women who are mature. Don’t put a delicate flower into this world of great disorder and then throw them out.’’ Asked about the gold standard of supermodels, Gisele Bundchen, Vodianova called her a consummate pro. “She hardly drinks, does not smoke, and does not party. Gisele is very smart and treats modeling as a business, not a lifestyle,’’ said Vodianova.

VIPs slated to attend the event include Steve and Jill Karp, Rue La La’s Ben Fischman, Eliot Tatelman of Jordan’s Furniture, hotelier Dick Friedman, WBUR’s Paul LaCamera, liquor store magnate Carl Martignetti, and Steven Kolb of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Source: The Boston Globe.