India Farrell was just 13 when a stranger came up to her in the street and asked her if she’d ever thought about modelling.
Tall and lanky with almost unearthly features, she had the kind of looks that many would describe as odd rather than pretty, but to the scout who spotted her she had the makings of a star.
Three years later she’s missing double science to head to New York Fashion Week, where she’ll audition for jobs with designers such as Marc Jacobs and Calvin Klein.
It’s the stuff of fairy tales: travelling the world and being paid up to £50,000 a day. So why is India crying on her bed and refusing to leave her room?
The fact that she is homesick, jet-lagged and alone in a strange city is only part of the answer. She has also just been told she’s fat by a New York agent.
Frantic phone calls are made, and the pressure is on India to pick herself up – a lot of time and money has gone into getting her this far and nobody wants her to ‘screw up’ this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
There is money to be made, not just by her, but by the circus that surrounds her. This is the dark side of the dream so many aspiring models share, as exposed by a new Channel 4 show.
The seven-part series follows Premier Model Management, one of the world’s biggest agencies, and reveals the tears and tantrums of the teenagers at the heart of the world’s most glamorous industry.
Premier boss Carole White, who started the company 30 years ago, was the woman Naomi Campbell called ‘Mum’ until a recent acrimonious split.
‘I think it’s every girl’s dream to be a model,’ says White. ‘It’s an amazing opportunity: even at the age of 16 they can earn more than their parents. It’s exciting and glamorous, but it’s also very hard. Some girls take to it like a duck to water, others get very anxious.
‘One girl in 10,000 might have what it takes. Being very pretty is not enough. I would say if we manage to get four each year we are lucky.
We look at girls of 14, we nurture them, and then when they’re 16 we launch them.’
India was discovered by Premier’s head scout, Anthony Gordon. ‘She was the most beautiful child,’ says Gordon, who travels the country on the lookout for the next Kate Moss.
Because India was only 13, Premier say they carefully kept in touch over the next few years, calling her in during the summers to teach her how to walk and pose, waiting until she was old enough to work.
Finally, young India, who has just finished her GCSEs, flies off to New York.
Astonishingly, the agency sends her off with no chaperone or family member in tow. The pressure is immense – the trip could be her big break, but Premier have a lot at stake too.
For two weeks, India is staying in a Manhattan house run by US agency Ford, sharing with other aspiring models.
Every day the girls go to up to 20 appointments. It can be a soul-destroying process. ‘I warn the girls they need to be as fit as Olympic athletes,’ says White.
‘After New York, I have girls crying with exhaustion.’
For India, it was more frightening than she thought. ‘I was trying to convince everyone I was fine, but when I got there it was a bit shocking,’ she says now. ‘You think, “I’m in America on my own and I don’t know what I’m doing.”’
Then, on her first day, a New York agent tells her she can’t afford to put on any more weight. India is distraught. ‘I’m a slim build anyway and it made me think, “Do I want to lose more weight?
Do I have to go on a diet?” It made me feel quite insulted, really,’ she says.
Annie Wilshaw, the agent in charge of younger models, reminds India that ‘not many girls get this chance, I don’t want you to regret anything’.
‘Put her in a bloody five-star hotel,’ suggests one of her colleagues. But it’s too late. India has already decided to quit modelling and go back to school.
It’s clear that no model agency invests years in a young girl without expecting significant return. But what on earth was a 16-year-old doing alone in New York in the first place?
‘We screwed up,’ White admits now. ‘We should have known sending a 16-year-old to New York on her own was too much.
'We usually chaperone them everywhere but this time we didn’t. She insisted she wanted to go on her own, and we thought she was confident enough.
'It was a massive mistake. But it’s happened before and it’ll happen again. It’s the nature of dealing with teenagers. We’re all very aware of how young they are and we try to protect them as much as we can, but it’s a business and they chose to come into it.’
India has now gone back to studying and is modelling part-time with Premier.
Her plans for the big time have, at least temporarily, been put on hold. But at the agency’s plush London offices, there’s a never-ending supply of young hopefuls ready to take her place.
The Model Agency, Wednesday 23 February, 10pm, Channel 4.
love the comparison yaars 
