I wish I did it before I went last night. I would have saved myself a couple of hours.
When we went to the modeling interview thing, Alyce was called back for 7:10 that night. My other 2 weren’t. Katiana was crying in the car. (She’s the one who wanted to go in the beginning and started this whole ball rolling.) She was upset because “Alyce is prettier than me”. No Katiana, Alyce just has a different look, maybe he wants someone with blue eyes. Maybe he wants a 3 year old. It has nothing to do with how you look, believe me child, I have been told by many people how beautiful you are. Mama is not the only one who thinks so.
He went gaga over Alyce. Oh she is such a ham! She looks like a little Barbie doll and wrote WOW on her paper and said be back tonight at 7:10 with a current photo of her.
Problem. All my pictures are either in photo books or on my hard drive. I had to come home, take a picture (of all 3 of them because he told Jordan and Kat that he would call me if they were chosen), run up to Hy-Vee, printed it out (recommend Hy-Vee’s photo processing much more than Wal-Mart’s after seeing the results of their prints in seconds pictures), and jetted back downtown.
My nephew Carter was also chosen to come back so I met my brother Josh there. My niece Taylor wasn’t chosen because she is missing a couple of teeth and waiting for the adult teeth to come in.
Everything sounded wonderful. No agent fees, no school, no this, no that, he takes his fee directly from the client, his fee was 25% (I’ve heard average is 10-20%). Awesome awesome awesome. We all know that you shouldn’t have to pay to have someone represent you. They get their cut when you are booked out. You shouldn’t have to pay for schooling, all that jazz. As he said, schooling isn’t going to do anything for you in modeling at the beginning, it’s a vain industry, you either have the look that is needed or you don’t.
I’m nodding, going along, happy happy.
Then he gets into photos. You have a choice, you can pay a one time fee of $449, he will pay for the photographer and for the photos each time you need to have your pictures updated, he picks what goes on the website and that is your comp card. The other choice is that you can go out and hire a high fashion photographer, take your own picture, and have them print 350 comp cards to last a year.
I came home and really started looking the company up. He mentioned that he had some claims against him with the Better Business Bureau but that all were resolved but one and that that was in resolution now and had to do with the client who was to pay the model, not him. He didn’t mention that he has a rating of F with the Better Business Bureau and that no, it’s not just one claim that’s unresolved.
I started Googling the company. Nothing. Nothing except people asking in Yahoo questions about the company. They’d been chosen and wanted to make sure it was legit before they signed. That’s it.
I’ve been in business for 4 years. Google Heather Manning and see how many hits you come up with. I’m a small digital scrapbook designer. If you are a modeling agency that has been in business for 4 years wouldn’t there be something good OR bad about you? People have a tendency to praise what they love and blast what they hate. Why is there nothing at all? That makes no sense to me what so ever.
One of the answers on Yahoo was that this company wasn’t listed in any of the industry trade places, that that didn’t mean they weren’t legit, but that they weren’t a major player. That’s fine. He told us that last night. You aren’t going to get rich doing this, Alyce would build up a nice college account was more or less it, and that was the whole reason I was interested. Even without being a major player in the industry there should be SOMETHING out there, right?
300 and some people auditioned. 36 were called back last night, Alyce being one of them. I can’t bring myself to call this morning and see if she made the final 13 that were chosen.
I’m not willing to risk my child on something that’s not legit and I’m not willing to risk my money on something.
I read something too that I had forgotten. Modeling agencies usually don’t do interviews like this. There are so many people wanting to be models beating on their doors that the legit ones don’t go out to hotels and find people. (Although, how else would it happen for you in Des Moines, IA? I asked myself that many times as a teenager with singing. I’m too short and round to have ever been a model.)
So, there you have it. Lesson learned, no money lost, Alyce had fun taking pictures outside, and she’s happy that she looks like a barbie.
Here’s the kids pictures I took (remember, these were quickies, just to get a current picture of them, not my best work) –
Alyce
Jordan
Katiana
They’re all beautiful aren’t they? I think so! Katiana had just dried her tears for that picture. Poor baby.
Today is another day. If this is something Katiana truly wants to do, I guess we can look for alternate routes. I didn’t even know she was interested in it until the commercial came on the radio and she jumped all over it. She was so broken hearted over it. Alyce honestly doesn’t even know what modeling is. She’s not to torn up over the fact that I’m not going to sign on the dotted line.
Have a wonderful day!
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