OnlyOnAOL: This supermodel's new campaign will melt your heart

By: Donna Freydkin

She's way, way more than just a very pretty face.

Doutzen Kroes, a supermodel who's donned lingerie for Victoria's Secret, has embraced a whole new campaign. She's working with the The Elephant Crisis Fund to launch the #KnotOnMyPlanet campaign on September 9, 2016, during New York Fashion Week. The goal: stopping elephant poaching and stopping the trafficking and demand for their ivory. (See our interview with her fellow Victoria's Secret models Sara Sampaio and Josephine Skriver above).

"It's so necessary right now. It's a hot topic on the news. It's been an ongoing project for two years. So many people are doing everything for free. When I first started this project, I didn't know how much work I'd be putting into this," she says.

Kroes, the global ambassador, is working with Joan Smalls, Miranda Kerr, Cara Delevingne, Adriana Lima, Robin Wright, Pearl Jam, and Adrien Brody. And the timing couldn't be better. A comprehensive census of African elephants, just released, has found that the population of the pachyderms has decreased by nearly a third between 2007 and 2014.

She remembers her formative elephant experience. "I was with my husband and my son in Kenya. It was love at first sight. The emotional connection they have with each other – I can't imagine how people can kill such amazing animals. And for what? A luxury item," she says, referring to ivory.

Her impetus towards activism was simple: motherhood. "It helps when you have children. You think about things in a different way. I've always been an animal lover. You hear about elephants dying and at some point there won't be any wild elephants left. You want your kids to see wild elephants," she says.

Kroes reached out to her very bold-faced circle of friends for help. "I got all my model colleagues involved. Pearl Jam -- a friend of mine knew them. I knew Robin Wright. She narrated the film. It's a snowball effect," says Kroes. "We can use fashion in a good way. People are ready for that. People work for free on this. It's mind-blowing to see what we have accomplished."

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See her video here:

Below, a look at elephant conservation in Malaysia.