So ... Your Child is A Model ... Now What? Model Mom Support Thread.

[circle_S]

Great article....thanks so much. There are hundreds of girls out there with a story very similar to this one.....if only all of them could move on and achieve the success of this young lady.

 

[circle_S]

I remember Otilia now. She has a thread in the supporting cast forum.

http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/f52/otilia-aionesei-38390.html

 

[Fontenrose]

Making Model Moms

by Annabella Asvik

Sep 4 2008
Agencies are betting big on developing the next major American models. As insurance, they’re putting time and money into...parents.

Neil Hamil, director of North America at Elite Model Management, thinks he has found the next American supermodel. “She’s 16 years old, 5’11”, blond with blue eyes, and has a fresh, healthy, athletic look,” Hamil says.

Almost as important, she comes with “middle-class parents who are as sweet as apple pie,” he says. “The kind of parents I love.”

Surprisingly, the idea that a runway star would come from the U.S. is somewhat radical. In the early 1990s, American models such as Christy Turlington and Tyra Banks earned millions of dollars a year with their modeling assignments. But over the last decade, as celebrities have taken over magazine covers, cosmetics contracts, and even advertising campaigns, and as waves of foreigners became “of the moment,” few American models have caused sizable industry buzz.


That now appears to be changing. Models.com, a website that ranks models based on their high-profile jobs, lists 10 American women in its top 50 list. Chanel Iman, Karlie Kloss, and Ali Stephens are just a few who are seen as the next superstars. Stephens has appeared in Italian Vogue; Iman on the cover of American Vogue; and Kloss and Stephens opened the last two Calvin Klein shows, for Fall 2008 and Resort 2009—the first Americans to do so in eight years.

“These are all big indicators that good things are coming,” Hamil says. “It’s an important part of the fashion industry giving their thumbs up.”

Management agencies are betting big on the phenomenon, investing in new locations (Hamil found his model at Elite’s new office in Salt Lake City, which has five full-time scouts) and in model development—at least $35,000 on travel and living expenses, test shoots, hairdresser, clothes, nutritionist, trainer, and a runway walking coach, before a prospective model has even gotten a job. To shore up those efforts, they are also putting time and money in parents.

There are parents who misbehave, are jealous of other models, try to sell their daughters at castings, or interfere at shoots—eventually costing jobs and money.


Parents are inextricably linked to the talent and have a huge effect,” says Matthew Hunt, creative director at Ford Models. “If you—or your parent—are not easy to work with, they’ll find someone who’s easier.”

When parents are involved in a positive way, models are more reliable and confident, and less likely to succumb to the vices of the industry, including drugs, alcohol, partying, and eating disorders. “We love having the parents with the model. It gives the girls a sense of comfort and ease, which shows at castings and at shoots,” Hunt says.

Of course, there’s always a flip side, industry insiders say. One mother fed her daughter diet pills that made her delusional. (“We got her off the pills and instead sent her to a nutritionist and a trainer,” says Roman Young, director of new faces at Elite.) A father sabotaged his daughter’s career by insisting she attend a swim competition instead of a shoot for British Vogue. “We understand that there’s more to life than modeling, but you often get just one shot in this industry,” Young says. There are parents who misbehave, are jealous of other models, try to sell their daughters at castings, or interfere at shoots—eventually costing jobs and money.

Elite is now running informal workshops to train the parents of their new stars, answering questions and advising them on what lies ahead. “We want the parents to be fully educated, so they can be good partners when we manage their child’s career,” Hamil says. Parents get two-hour orientations as soon as they arrive for an initial visit to New York, with the approach tailored to their socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. There are follow-up lunches and dinners—and though a group setting might seem like a good idea, it’s something Young avoids. “You can have a conservative family at the same table saying they’d never let their child do a certain kind of job, and a liberal family saying how silly it would be to turn it down.”

This summer, Elite New York will bring 30 American girls to test the waters in New York; IMG Models brings in five or six. This will add up to tens of thousands of dollars invested in mothers and fathers, as a sort of insurance. “We have someone to hold accountable,” Young says.

The agencies are expecting a payoff in better performance. They typically take 20 percent of every paycheck and charge an extra 20 percent on top of the model’s total fee directly to the client. Elite will only keep a model if she earns at least $150,000 her first year, Hamil says. But top models such as Stephens and Iman can make in the range of $750,000 to $2 million a year. In 2007, Gisele Bündchen alone earned $35 million.

Ali Stephens’ mother says she always travels with her 17-year-old daughter to shoots, shows, and castings. “When Ali faces rejection, or if clients complains about her muscular runner’s legs, I’m there to turn her focus on the positive comments she has gotten,” she says.

China Iman, who travels with her daughter, featured as one of the next supermodels on the cover of May 2007 Vogue, is able to act as chaperone because of her flexible schedule as a flight attendant. “I heard Tyra Banks saying she never encountered the ugly side of modeling because her mother was always there, and I never wanted Chanel to be alone either,” says Iman, who always wears black at shoots so she can blend in. “The vices of the fashion industry are all out there, from the club promoters charming the girls to go out and maybe more, to smoking, drinking, and drugs. But when a girl has a parent with her, these people respect you in a different way and leave you to focus on the modeling.”

Here, six supermodels and the parents who influenced them.

I heard another comment today:

I was out to dinner the other night next to a gaggle of 15 year old blonde models. They were chainsmoking and drinking martinis. "No menus, thanks!"

 

[Fontenrose]

wsj

video of show packages

a slideshow of the show packages

Models get charged for this. It is a very good thing if the agency wants a girl to be included. So you can't turn down the opportunity. Just ask how much will be put on her account. It shows they will push her hard to get cast. If she isn't, well she may still be sent for some castings.

For Some Agencies It's in the Cards [FONT=Times New Roman,Times,Serif]Elaborate fashion show packages can cost thousands of dollars; Part marketing, part ephemera[/FONT]
[FONT=times new roman,times,serif][FONT=times new roman,times,serif]WSJ September 3, 2008[/FONT]
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About three weeks before fashion week starts, the offices of casting directors, stylists and designers are flooded with show packages containing cards of models that agencies want to promote for the bi-annual runway shows. Model cards are meant to provide basic stats on available models for hire: A typical card features photos of a model, his or her measurements and contact information.

In the last few years, the show package has evolved from a simple informational tool to an industry art form. Competition for fashion week bookings has ratcheted up such that the packages, which were once no different from the basic set of cards mailed throughout the year by agencies, have become elaborate, twice-yearly productions, that can cost modeling agencies thousands of dollars. Subtle details such as custom fonts, hand-stamped wax seals and bespoke boxes are crafted into meticulous displays of aesthetic.
For September's show season, Elite Models spent $40,000 on 1,000 21-card packages, which were inspired by a vintage 1970s surf poster. Ford Models's package features a stack of floral-collaged cards with custom-made ribbon font, sitting atop dehydrated moss. Only 250 copies will be printed; each will be hand-addressed and hand-delivered. (Ford declined to reveal its show-package budget.) Women Models invested around $80,000 for 500 silk-covered binders with fold-out cards. By contrast, Elite estimated that ten years ago, it spent $500 for its show packages.
"If you don't make that really strong impression, you really could be setting the girl up to have a bad season," says graphic designer and former modeling agent Mac Folkes, who designed Elite's packages last year.


Show packages can take between two to six months to complete. Yet their lifespan lasts only a few weeks; after the fashion weeks in New York and Europe are over, they are often thrown away. "In many ways, we are crafting the careers of talent in the same way that designers are crafting their looks," Ford CEO John Caplan says.


Before the era of 1990s supermodels such as Naomi Campbell, Cindy Crawford and Linda Evangelista, models primarily did either runway work or editorial work. But starting around 2000, models began to be marketed aggressively for both venues. This push propelled agencies to start getting creative to grab the attention of casting directors.


The show package "promotes the image of the agency as a whole," says Neil Hamil, director of Elite North America. "We're really marketing for the shows: something new and different each time. It's always about who's new, who's fresh. This is another reason why this becomes necessary."
Last year, Mr. Hamil hired Mr. Folkes to create Elite's Spring 2008 package. The theme, A Gathering of Swans, was based on a phrase by Truman Capote. Elite commissioned the creation of short poems for each its 24 models to be displayed on their cards. "Double-barreled and // in full bloom, she // lashes out against a // nasty and somewhat demeaning // minimalism enforced over the // past decade," read the ode to model Coco Rocha.


Paul Rowland, president of Supreme Models, has sought to turn his productions into collectibles. Recognizing that the majority of show packages are thrown out as soon as runway shows are over, Mr. Rowland published a bound coffee table book as his show package this season. The book intersperses drawings and images from young artists with pictures of Supreme models shot in nature. (A loose set of model cards is also included so casting agents don't have to rip the book apart.) "Honestly, this is more of a promotion to give image to my agency," Mr. Rowland says.
Supreme's show package budget this year was $50,000. "For me, it's worth it," Mr. Rowland says. "In fashion, image is everything." In addition to the 400 books and model cards that he will send out, Mr. Rowland published an extra 100 copies, which he's hoping to sell to consumers.
Rocket Garage, which represents models and musicians, has taken it a step further this season and has produced a short film as its show package. Shot over three days on the streets of New York, the video aims to provide a glimpse of personality that the cards can't provide. It was uploaded to Rocket Garage's Web site the week before fashion week kicked off. "Fashion is no longer about just the printed page," says managing partner Lance LaBreche. "It's becoming more than that."


But some packages are so creative that they lose their functionality. Agencies have been criticized for sending out cards with models' backs to the camera or that have their hair obscuring their faces. Casting directors also often complain of cards being unwieldy or unreadable. Agencies "forget the purpose of the show package, which is for casting directors to see what these girls look like," says casting director Jennifer Starr. "It frustrates me that this is how they use this."

 

[model_mom]

NY daily news

Confessions of a model baby-sitter

BY SEAN EVANS
Sunday, September 7th 2008, 4:00 AM

Roberts/Getty While young models prowl the city, their handlers are lurking in the background to see things don't get too crazy.


Navigating NYC's Fall Fashion Week shows, parties and events is daunting enough for most participants, but for the 16-year-old girls strutting down the catwalks for the first time, it can be plain terrifying.
To counter that, their agencies employ chaperones and baby-sitters to live with, and watch over, the under-21 girls while they're here in the Big Apple.
"Would you want your young daughter alone in New York City? That's why we do this, so everyone can be sure the girls are safe, especially their parents," said Valerie Boyce, a booker and model chaperone for Trump Model Management. Boyce, 27, is currently playing mom to nine girls prepping to work the runways at Bryant Park.
"We have a three-bedroom duplex on the East Side. I have one bedroom, and the rest of the girls sleep in bunk beds downstairs," Boyce said. And in the same building, other agencies have apartments for models, each with a slew of foreign girls crashing in beds and on couches and floors.
While the girls are supposed to observe a strict 11 p.m. curfew, "you can't always watch them 24/7," another agency's chaperone said.
The chaperone, who is male, added, "The girls sneak out a lot. These are 15- and 16-year-olds, who are linking up with nightlife promoters and hitting the clubs with a vengeance.
"They meet photographers, stylists, designers and casting directors while they're out. The fashion industry flocks to certain places and the girls do need to be there. We tell them to take it easy on the partying, though."
If the girls are pushing it too hard, they could be sent home, Boyce said. "They always get a warning, but if they aren't mature enough to handle the lifestyle, we send them back to their parents for a bit."
How does an underage model end up swilling Champagne in a club anyway? "These girls look much older than they really are," said one nightlife staple named Debbie, who withheld her last name. "They're sophisticated, they've been to Nobu 20 times, they've been on private planes, and it's easy to assume they're older than they are."
The models are crowded on the streets in front of casting calls. "Club promoters get a list of castings, and go and stand outside and wait. If you have a car, you offer a girl a ride to their next casting. You hang out with them and let them know what's going on that night. That's all model wranglers do all day," Debbie said.
And then the promoters will call the model apartments. The manny noted that his abode had to change its number three times due to promoters harassing the girls. "And they still call," he sighed.
"Since these girls travel in packs, it's usually with their roommates. Promoters refer to the apartments by agency name, like 'That's the Click apartment,' since the entire apartment goes out together. So you call the phone there. It doesn't matter who picks up. If they're living there, they must be hot, so you just invite them," Debbie said.
The downside of the girls' nights out is big: "Girls miss flights to shoots, castings or fittings. Or they go drunk and lose a client, sometimes an entire retainer," Debbie said. And there are more working models now, so to lose a job means there are girls waiting in line to fill in instantly.
"It's tough out there," Boyce said. "I try to guide them as best I can so they avoid the pitfalls of this chaotic industry."

 

[BetteT]

Jeez .... thats' really scary!!

I can see why the club promoters want them there and I can see why it's really tempting to the young models .

But, it sounds like their "chaperones" don't really try too hard to keep them home a night, either. In fact ... it sounds like they are actually encouraging the underage girls to get out there. Something is really wrong here ......

"They meet photographers, stylists, designers and casting directors while they're out. The fashion industry flocks to certain places and the girls do need to be there. We tell them to take it easy on the partying, though."
If the girls are pushing it too hard, they could be sent home, Boyce said. "They always get a warning, but if they aren't mature enough to handle the lifestyle, we send them back to their parents for a bit."

 

[Fontenrose]

Mother agencies, another modern-day phenomenon, are a key factor in the rise in controversial agency switches. In the early heyday of major agencies (Ford and Elite solely competed for dominance in the ’70s before upstarts like DNA and IMG came along), New York agents would scout abroad themselves, securing the rights to foreign girls from the beginning. Now, agents in areas of the world where many popular models are born and bred—Eastern Europe, South Africa, Brazil, the United Kingdom and even far-flung middle regions of the U.S.—have wised up and started signing girls at the local level, becoming their “mother agents,” and essentially earning ultimate control over who else a model signs with.

“The problem with mother agents,” says a young agent from a prominent U.S. house, “is that they can basically move girls wherever the f--k they want, and so American agents are at their beck and call.

read the entire article, lots of interesting bits of info

from http://www.nypost.com/pagesixmag/issues/20080907/Stealing+Beauty?print=true1

 

[kmodel]

Hi,
We are new, mom and model. The modeling came as a surprise to us recently and we have decided to pursue it. I have read just about every thread/forum I can find about modeling and still cannot find information about teenage models' education. How do these 15/16 year olds continue their high school education? How do they continue it when they are sent overseas? Do they just drop out of high school? This is extremely important to us. Our mother agency said do it on the computer, but our high school principal said you can't do that and remain enrolled, you must have actual time in the classroom. Help!

 

[exmachina]

Hi,
We are new, mom and model. The modeling came as a surprise to us recently and we have decided to pursue it. I have read just about every thread/forum I can find about modeling and still cannot find information about teenage models' education. How do these 15/16 year olds continue their high school education? How do they continue it when they are sent overseas? Do they just drop out of high school? This is extremely important to us. Our mother agency said do it on the computer, but our high school principal said you can't do that and remain enrolled, you must have actual time in the classroom. Help!

I think usually younger models only model part time if they wish to remain in the traditional school setting rather than being home schooled. Over seas work would probably only happen during the summer or vacation times. Then after graduation they start working full time if their careers reach that level. Talk to your daughter's agency about what their plan for her is. I'm sure you can reach a conclusion together.

 

[notwolfy]

Indiana University has an online high school program. Sometimes you can talk to your high school and work out what the required classes she;ll need for graduation. When she completes them and submits them to her school, then she can graduate from her original school, much like an exchange program. Don't count on the agency to work this out for you, you really have to take the reins on this. If this (modeling) came out of the blue most of her energy normally put into school work, will need to be channelled into learning modeling. Even if your daughter was a very focussed HS student. It will be up to you to make sure she is putting some time in on school.

 

[model_mom]

and if she gets as far as New York and the high fashion scene ( show season, editorials,campaigns) it will be almost impossible to keep up with any type of schooling.

Choices have to be made....Ali tried her best to keep up with her schooling even going the online route but she ended up dropping out for over a year. She finally decided to stop modeling for awhile...went back to school and graduated with her class....but there's always the chance that you can't pick back up where you left off.

 

[kmodel]

Thanks to everyone. Modeling is something that has just "happened" to us. We are a month into school and I am already seeing that we may be having serious conflicts ahead (and have had one this week already). We have been told that she will definately be traveling and that New York is in the future. You have confirmed what I suspected and that is that we will have to take control quickly of her education or else inform the agency to consider her only for local work until summer. Thanks to everyone who PMd me - I am listening to all the advice and investigating all educational avenues open to us including summer modeling only!

 

[LOVEITALL]

We faced this same dilemma 3 years ago when my daughter was 16 and entering her junior year of high school when she signed with her agency. We insisted that she remain in school full time and worked only part time in modeling. Now she is working full time and in hindsight her modeling career would have been much further developed if she had been more available for castings, etc. during those first 2 years. Although my daughter has thanked me for letting her finish school the traditional way and graduate with her friends. She graduated at the top of her class, was involved in student government and ran track setting the school high hurdle record - all while working part time and going to NYC every few months for jobs. It was a very hard decision at the time but every situation is different. Trust yourself and make the decision that you and your daughter are most comfortable with. This is a great thread and I appreciate reading everyone's input and advice!

 

[Michelle G]

It's interesting, here in Australia, in the town we live in there is only limited modeling work anyway, so at this time it is not interfering too much in Maddi's Schooling. But then the travel is just about to start, but in saying that all seems to be organised in school holidays. The school has been very accommodating also saying that for the next two years that while she is away they will look at changing the curriculum for her. But for the last year of school that will not be possible and she will have to make some decisions then.
Our agency is big on getting the girls to finish their schooling and even some of the clients have moved or extended castings to be fair to the girls in year 12 (last year of school) so they don't miss out on them due to exams etc.

Don't think this happens in the other capital cities but I'm happy it happens here.
Cheers

 

[ModelMommy]

Does anyone have any current information about working in the Asian market from other countries?? If there is another thread on this topic, I'd appreciate the help finding it!

I understand that sometimes younger girls are sent to Asian countries like Japan to get a start in the business. Any current information or personal experiences are appreciated!

 

[model_mom]

Japan is a great money market....but the MAIN thing to remember is to make sure that your agency has legitimate contact agency in Japan with a proven track record. A lot of the top girls go there to make money and sometimes even score editorial and covers that are great to have in your book when you come to NY.

 

[ModelMommy]

Is it a safe place for teens??

 

[model_mom]

Ford wanted Ali to go there when she was 16.....We researched it and decided that they make it sound safe enough but we weren't willing to take the risks that were involved. Some very mature teens might be able to handle all the decision making involved but most kids that age haven't had the experience to deal with all that is involved in living on your own in a foreign country.

There are several model members that have been in Japan and might be able to help you more with this...Almost Famous being one.

 

[LOVEITALL]

Is Japan a safe place for teens? I really wouldn't know - are you asking if you are sending a teen by themselves? I would be reluctant to send a younger teen anywhere overseas alone - I would think her agency would want a chaperone to go along. If it's the first international experience, I'd definitely go along with my daughter.

 

[Paws]

Japan is a fantastic place to model. My daughter has gone there, it was safe, clean, the people were wonderful BUT I went with her. I would never have considered her going alone at 15/16.
.........but you know, there were models there that age who were there alone