My Beautiful Girl

This past weekend was what might be the beginning of my daughters modeling career, in fact it is the beginning regardless of the outcome of Saturday's events.

You see, on the September long weekend my kids went with their dad to the Bumpershoot Music Festival in Seattle and a scout from Pulse Management approached my ex and asked if the tall young lady with him was his daughter. Well, my girl is 5'91/4" tall, slim and very pretty so it's no wonder she was noticed. They exchanged email addresses and some other information and the scout indicated that there would be an open call sometime in October and that she would let them know the details. Well...

A week and a half ago my ex got the email with the details and being that the call fell on my weekend with the kids I was more than happy to take her to Seattle. After all I have experience in this particular industry and I was leery that it might be a scam, as was everyone who knew what was going on with regards to this invitation.

So last week I spoke with the scout personally and found out more information, turns our Pulse Management has an exclusive partnership with Elite Models. For those of you who have not heard of Elite, this is the agency who launched Cindy Crawford's modeling career. Not to mention Tyra Banks, Naiomi Campbell, Iman, Cameron Diaz, Andy McDowell, Heidi Klume, Giselle Bunzchen to name a few. So ya, this is legitimate. The owner of Pulse, Stacey Eastman was the presenter and explained who he was and who he works with, Trump (as in "The Donald") Models is also a partner and that he was looking for girls who have the potential, and future potential to make it in this very tough business.

All that being said, we sat through the first hour and a half listening and watching intently, all the while my ADHD son sat quietly and very patiently next to me doodling. My daughter was nervous, not knowing what to expect and when it came time to go face to face with Stacey I thought for sure she would back out, she didn't. She is a very driven young lady and when she sees something she wants she goes for it. All the girls lined up outside the room and came in one at a time for a quick few words with Stacey, there were probably 50 to 60 girls ranging in age from 12 to 23 and all of varying height, my daughter being one of the tallest.

She was third from last and when her turn finally arrived she dutifully handed Stacey her information sheet and he asked her when she would be turning 14, she answered, then he asked what her shoe size was, she answered 10. Stacey that turned to the crowd as he had for numerous girls before my daughter and shouted out "mom?" I stood up and he asked how tall I was, 5'10" and how tall her dad is, 6'2" the reason for this is to determine how tall she will be when she finishes growing. Being 13 and 5'9-1/4" and a size 10 foot she will likely be over 6' tall which in this industry is spectacular!

She had always hated her height, and I always told her that one day she will love it, well this past Saturday she discovered exactly what I was talking about. Height is a huge benefit in the modeling industry and tall girls make good money. I'll get into the details of exactly how much a little later. Needless to say, her self esteem was significantly boosted that day.

Once all the girls had the first run through and were seated with their parents, Stacey explained that he would be calling the names of the girls that he wanted to see and that the rest were free to go, he was very kind about it, he explained that he was looking for a specific type of girl and that all the girls were beautiful and not to give up their dream, but he can't keep everyone and have a great afternoon.

We sat and waited, he held a small stack of info sheets in his hand and I was convinced at that point that we would be done. After he called the six girls up to the front with their parents and asked them to wait a moment he would speak to them in a moment. Ok, I thought we're done...

Nope not so, he then took a larger stack and told us that the names he called out next would be staying for the second half of the presentation and that these girls have potential. He handed the stack to his assistant and went off the talk to the first group he called. I have no idea what he said to them, but one thing all the girls in that group had in common was they all had "books" in my day they were called portfolios so they were obviously experienced, maybe he told them he would contact them, maybe he told them to look elsewhere who knows, it was the stack in the assistants hand I was interested in.

The assistant started naming off the girls and as the stack grew smaller and smaller my stomach did little flips, second from last my daughters name was called, phew! She made it to the second half both a blessing and a curse, it was already noon and we were starving, but we persevered.

Stacey thanked all the girls who's names were not called and sent them on their way. Now the second half of the presentation begins. This is where we get the dirt on the industry, it's still as ugly as I remember, so no surprise there, it's still extremely lucrative if you make it, that being the key, if you make it. It's a tough thing to break into the modeling scene, when I made my attempt I was freelance because I didn't know any better, I thought you just sign with an agency and voila you're in, well, not so. There were and still are thousands of young slim pretty girls trying to market themselves and it's still a total crap shoot. Unless you're discovered.

This is like winning the lottery in this industry, it happens but it's rare. My daughter was scouted, not the same thing, you're not "discovered" until you have a contract and your first big job and everyone knows your name. We are not quite there yet we are still sitting in a room with about 25 other pretty girls hoping to be discovered.

The afternoon presentation lasted another two hours, at this point my son was starting to complain, not too much but he was getting hungry as we all were and pretty much done with sitting still. He persevered and we endured. We watched video of some of Stacey's models, we saw video of what goes on back stage at runway shows in places like Milan, London, and Paris. We were told that Stacey's models do not work for less than $60.00 per hour and that the industry average is about $275.00 per hour. We learned that if you are really good and in demand you could command $10,000.00 to $20,000.00 per day and a day is defined as four hours anything over that and your at time and a half. HOLY CRAP that's a lot of money, not to mention the possibility of landing an entire campaign for oh say Chanel or Prada and now were talking six figures, but that's only if you're really good.

So as we rap up and all this information is being digested Stacey informs us that there is just one more step to completing the process this afternoon. Polaroids. This is where he takes head and body shots of all the girls so he can make his final decision back in Manhattan with Elite or Trump on the girls from this afternoon, my daughter being one of them. I had done her measurements the night before and recorded them on a piece of paper tucked in my purse, for those mom's who didn't know the process, Stacey had a bunch of measuring tapes.

My daughter was the third girl to be photographed because it was just a matter of filling in the blanks and making sure my email address was clear. Everything these days seems to be electronic, in my day you took your portfolio to pre-set appointments and waited for a phone call. Now in this digital age, all the pictures will be downloaded and emailed around the world in seconds. Needless to say, when the shots were done, Stacey gave my daughter a high five, now I have no idea if anyone else got one, we left right after that. BUT...physical contact is a good thing it cements a person in the mind. I'm taking it as a positive.

So, now we wait. We were told it could take up to two weeks to hear back, so far I've not seen anything so no news is good news right? This is both exciting and daunting, if this happens and she gets a contract I will need to get her first set of photos done. In this industry you do pay for your first set, unless you get signed to an agency right away that is. Pulse is a management company, they would put the girls in front of the agency, without a book it's hard to be seen by anyone. Management companies might advance the cost of the book to a model if they are confident that model will get lots of work. Agencies will pay for the book because at that point they know this particular model will work.

The only question that weighs on my mind right now is, if she does get signed to Pulse and Elite how on earth am I going to be able to travel with her? Being only 13 she will need a parent present, or grandparent, apparently Stacey has what he calls his "granny squad" grandmothers who travel with their granddaughters. Both grandmothers have agreed to travel, my mom when her back is better and my ex-mother-in-law any time we need her. I for one however would love the opportunity to travel with her, are you kidding? Paris? Milan? New York? Miami? It's a no brainer. But...like I said, she needs to be discovered and we're not quite there yet.

The one parting comment that Stacey made before he started photographing the girls was something to the effect of..."the reason you are all in this room now is because I see in each of you potential, you are here because you should be. If this doesn't work out with me do not give up, find a local agent or manager and keep going." So regardless of the outcome of this first open call my daughter has ever attended she will not quit, this is something she wants to do, this is not her final career choice, you see, she plans on being a doctor and wants to go to school somewhere other than Vancouver. This is not a cheep endeavor and she sees modeling as a way to ensure she can go to any university she chooses, and she will, like I said before she's very driven and a gifted student.

Who'd a thunk, my beautiful girl is about to embark on a remarkable journey one that I hope will fulfill all her dreams.

With much love, light and wonder,
Tammy.