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Dear Daisy, It is your first day at school...

Modelling days... A lifetime ago and some advice

Some may already know I used to do some modelling in my younger days (how old do I sound?!), well my last "shoot" was around 3 years ago and that was for self interest not paid work or for anyone in particular. 

I thought I would write this as I see a lot of girls trying to get into the world of modelling and sadly there are a lot of people out there that can exploit this on all different kinds of levels. For example to start with you will see a lot of advertisements on places such as Facebook, YouTube etc from supposed agencies but at the end of the day after the excitement of the prospect of  becoming a model all they are doing is offering photo shoots to build portfolios and then charging a whopping bill at the end of it. 



A REAL agency won't charge you for this privilege as they will hope to get some good piccies, to enable them to get you work and therefore make money that way through commission. 

Anyway I've rambled on a bit there... 


So I started after being approached and getting a portfolio built up with an agency, Plain Jane. That doesn't mean that I then didn't get carried away and pay for further photographs when conned by other supposed agencies who could also promise me work (work that never came). But this was minimal in my case, thankfully. I also knew I was short for a model and I could only really do commercial and portrait work, nothing like runway or editorial! 


I enjoyed it for a few years and made a bit of money alongside college and university but nothing like you would expect. You need to be able to be really flexible and travel to make anything, or you did back then anyway. There are now so many girls out there who want to become models that most will do it for free (yes free!!!) and therefore why would clients or photographers pay you??! It became very saturated and it was a lot of work and time for not a great deal of return. I got a buzz from seeing the photos but even that wears off after a while! 


After I had done commercial work for a while more opportunities tended to come from the lingerie/ glamour side of the industry. Again being small this was an option available- I had pretty large boobs what more do they want!!! It's not exactly like that but again it wouldn't be well paid because of the "Jordan" culture that so many girls dreamt of being in. I'm not saying that there aren't models out there that don't do well and make a really good living out of it as there are, but I do think unless you really are that one off girl then sadly you would need to be open to do more on your shoots (exactly what you are thinking- not for me!!) to make anything or do it for personal enjoyment. 



If you are interested in modelling or you want to get your child into it then please use the ALBA site to look at the list of approved agencies, the only list I would trust of decent agencies and real ones at that. 

If you do go along to a shoot where you don't know the photographer or client in question always take a chaperone. It's not unusual for shoots to be held in old warehouses etc as they have the space and aesthetics to make great photos but I would never go alone. It's also not unusual for photographers to work from home, theirs or yours. Again always have some one with you for your own safety. 




If you have any questions please do ask away!


Lots of love,
Hayley xxx

2 comments

  1. Gorgeous pics my dear! So great to hear a true account of the modelling world, and I'm sure this post will help lots of girls/guys wanting to get into he industry! X

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    1. Thankyou I wasn't going to share but I've seen a few tweets etc about modelling this week so thought I should :) xx

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