Modeling is one of the greatest job a girl can have. It opens up a whole new world, endless possibilities and so many new experiences. But modeling is way too over glamorized through media and people like to think that it’s all about glitz and glam… what it’s not! I truly love my job and everything what it have taught me through all these years. But there are a lot people don’t know about modeling so I decided to give you some dirt what models actually have to deal with.

 

 

1. Jet lag

 

Always and forever, because of the constant traveling. After few years you will get used with it and you won’t even notice it anymore, but it’s always there!

 

2. Clients feed us with Junk food

Modeling, eating habits and food is always a big talk around media. Is it about underweight models, irregular eating habits or plus size modeling. But the actual truth is that often clients provide junk food like burgers and pizza for a lunch during the job. Girls like me will probably know already, that if you want to take care if yourself you have to take your own lunch box with nutritious meal. Otherwise you will be starving the whole day shooting or forced to eat something extremely unhealthy.

 

3. Being healthy is not a diet

Yeah, I admit that I really am a health freak. But you can’t imagine how many times I had to explain that being healthy is not a diet. I am not healthy to stay in shape, I am not healthy to fit to some kind of standards of what size models should be. I’m healthy for my own well-being and for my healthier future. I’m healthy because I care about myself!

 

4. Waiting

I’m sure that 95% of the models are more professional in waiting than in posing. We have to wait for castings to start, the wait in the casting line, wait before the jobs for the client to arrive, wait that the photographer can fix the lights, wait for drivers, wait for flights. Anything we do includes waiting. We wait a lot, we don’t like it, we don’t get paid for it and we still do it!

 

5. There are jobs where models don’t get paid

Especially when you are a new face. The least you get paid for fashion shows and magazines. Sometimes you don’t even get paid, sometimes clients pay with clothes and sometimes you leave with nothing(and hope that maybe at least the pictures are good enough to use them in your portfolio). So next time when you go through glamourous fashion magazine and look the pictures of fabulous beautiful girls posing in the nicest clothing’s remember that she probably went home with nothing or just few hundred dollars in her pocket.

 

6. Still not so Glam

Photo shoots are probably  one the least fancy part of  modeling. yeah we get our make up and hair done, but everything else what happens behind the picture isn’t so fun as it seems. We need to shoot in really cold or really hot with totally not suitable clothing. Because we shoot winter season in the summer and summer season in the winter. So doing a 9 hour shoot in summer dresses on the beach with 4C is very common. Also over heating while wearing fur in the middle of the summer isn’t anything new either. Also often we need to change outfits from 50-200 times per day. And let’s not forget posing in the most bizarre places in very uncomfortable pose and make the face like you feel the best(while your leg is stuccoed somewhere or you have a cram in your muscle of holding some strange pose what photographer just asked for)

 

7. We don’t work everyday

Of course going to castings is part of our work, but again we don’t get paid for going to the castings. After signing the contract with new agency on a new market, at first you need to start introducing yourself to the market by seeing as many clients as possible and then later on the jobs are starting to coming in. When you find the right market for yourself, then you will be able to book regular jobs. But otherwise the seasons are all different and they come and go(every season clients are looking for something new and different). It’s all about being on the right time in the right place. But average model does about 2-4 shooting per week. But when it’s off season it can be even one shooting per week or nothing at all!

 

8. Make up artists and hair stylists are our biggest enemies

Having a make up on almost everyday and getting our hair done with tons of hair spray is very damaging for us. After few years you understand that you need to take a lot more care of your hair and skin, because after all the damage it becomes very sensitive. Make up artists often focus only on their work and they forget how much it effects up. They forget to clean the brushes while using the same brush on different girls or they don’t ask what kind of products suits for my skin. More your skin breaks down, more you need make up on and this is like a dead circle from where the only way out is that every second when you don’t need to stand on the photo shoot or in the casting line, DON’T WEAR MAKE UP! Also getting burned with hair straighter or getting poked into the eye with the eyeliner is nothing new for a working model.

 

9. Photoshop

We have zero control what happens after we have done the shooting. We give our best on the job, but everything what happens before the picture hits the magazines or billboards is unknown world for us. They might change your nose, hair color, your natural curves or even your length. There are endless amount of articles about how models look unrealistic, unhealthy and blablabla on the photos. Actually most girls nowadays are really healthy, but the magic of the photoshop is what puts the bad image on the modeling industry(of course there are still countless of numbers of girls who haven’t realized it’s not right for them to force their bodies to be in unhealthy shape for the industry, but mostly I see a big change in the industry becoming healthier)

 

10. Not all the clothes fit us

Especially when you are working mostly for lookbooks, catalogues and online stores… you know what Im talking about. 70% of the clothes look weird on us and our backs are covered with pins to make it look like the clothes fit us perfectly. They pin us up in every possible way so don’t believe everything you see on the pictures. Because sometimes these beautiful clothes don’t actually look so good on tour body.

 

11. Models have the ugliest feet

When you are into women with nice feet, then never date a model. Our feet are bruised, skin is broken, our heels are growing in the very weird directions and most of the time of our lives we have blisters. Because it doesn’t happen very often when we are able to wear shoes what actually fit for us. So wearing two numbers smaller shoes few days a week is just a part of our job. Often back of the shoes are cut open to fit our feet in. Also wearing very high heels most of the time have done it’s job too! Look more !

 

12. Models are Humans

Yeah it sounds funny, but our bodies function exactly the same way like every other human. You can’t imagine how many times people get surprised when they see a model who is bloated or have their period. We have problems like everybody else, but sometimes the industry don’t want to accept it. Agencies are often surprised that a girl who just came off from 10hour flight is bloated, when a girl gains 2kg while on their period or when a teenager body is going through changes. Agencies can even complain when a teenage girl is becoming a women and finally gets some boobs. We get sick and we are sometimes tired, we also sometimes feel very cold. Also we gain weight and we lose weight, we struggle with our everyday routine and we crave for compliments what are about us as persons(not about our beauty). But often world is very brainfucked and people like to think that models must be close to perfect all the time. The truth is that we are not. Everything seems nice on the pictures, but in the end of the day we go home, put on sweatpants and size L tshirt, tie up our hair and don’t give a shit how we look like.

 

You can check out more from me on my  and my site Healthy and Nourished

Comments

comments