As a matter of fact, any work that you do, from clerking in a store to washing dishes for Mother, will not only earn you extra cents but will also teach you new facets of life. It will enlarge your horizons, force you to learn patience and perseverance, and better prepare you for the day when you doff the cap and gown and set foot in your own world.
If the lack of a few pennies sets you off to earn your own money, then instead of feeling sorry for yourself you can count yourself lucky, for you are getting your licks in early. There is not one friend of my acquaintance who regrets the time she spent in her school days earning extra money. In fact many of them look to that period as the time when they first learned what stuff life—not dreams—is made of.
Remember that if you have to take a job when you are still in your teens, you may be establishing your career. I never forget that the reason I became a model was because I needed to earn money for my college tuition.
It is not often that a girl can step right into modeling as a money-making sideline when she is still in school. I was fortunate in that I lived near New York, which is a center of fashion and consequently a place where models are much in demand. It is not often, either, that a girl, having graduated from school, can come to New York, or any other city, and become a success as a model. For every thousand girls who try, I am told, only one succeeds.
It is a strange combination of talents that makes a girl a successful model—a good figure, a photogenic face (one that has interesting planes and angles more than rounded sweetness), an alert air, a great deal of intelligence, and a keen understanding of fashion. Even with all these qualifications, sometimes a girl just doesn't click. The fashion world is fickle.
Because so many teens have asked me how to be a model and what modeling involves, 111 try to sum up the requirements here. For the most part what I have to say will be discouraging. I don't mean to sound hardhearted, but the facts are very bleak.
First, you've got to be ready to work hard. You've got to be prepared to take a lot of hard knocks. I know one young model who has been trying to get established for a year. She is still trying. Recently she told me that she had advised her younger sister, who was thinking of trying her hand also, that the game wasn't worth the candle.
Second, you will need enough money to see you through six months—for in the beginning, jobs, if any, will be few and far between. If at the end of six months you are still ringing magazine and photographers' doorbells without success, if you have not been taken on by a store or showroom as a regular, then salvage what is left of your nest egg and turn your thoughts to other things. You just weren't cut out to be a model.
As to modeling itself, it is not all made up of posing glamor-ously for magazines. Many models never even see a camera. These are the girls who work in stores and showrooms (where wholesale dresses are made). They model dresses for prospective buyers. Their life is a round of getting into and out of dresses. They have the advantage, however, of steady work and steady pay. Furthermore, they have the excitement of being in at the beginning of new fashions, for it is in the wholesale showroom (in New York, in Chicago, in St. Louis, in California) where the fashion ideas are born. There the department store people come to buy the clothes you see on the racks. There also come the fashion editors of magazines and newspapers to choose the things they want to photograph and which ultimately you see pictured on their pages.
In addition to showroom models, there are girls who model for department stores—in the expensive salons. These girls are hired on a steady basis, as the wholesale girls are. There are also girls who model for fashion shows, such as stores give from time to time; these girls are not steady employees, but free-lancers. They may do only shows, or they may mix shows with photography.
Then there are models who only work under the lights—the girls who get photographed. Some of them you recognize immediately; their pictures are everywhere. Others, whom you never hear of and hardly ever see, only make enough to scrape along. A photography model is paid only for the number of hours she works, and some only work a few hours each month.
Furthermore, a photography model has a lot of expenses. She has to have a supply of accessories which may be required by her bookings: such items as high-heeled pumps, low-heeled shoes, play shoes, hats, all kinds of gloves. She also has to be responsible for her cosmetics, lipstick, powder, etc., as well as always coming to any job with her hair meticulously groomed. The reason that the hatbox has become a symbol of modeling is that so many models use it to carry all this paraphernalia. A model without her equipment is in just about the same position as a photographer without a camera.
There's another kind of equipment that a model must have, and it's intangible—stamina. It takes stamina to stand for hours posing under hot lights in sometimes uncomfortable positions. It takes stamina to rush from one job to another without any time between for a breather. It also takes stamina to keep to a beauty regimen that will guarantee success.
How do you get to be a model? I got to be one by being one. I learned by watching other models, by studying poses in pictures, by trying out new ideas of my own. I learned by listening to the criticism of photographers and editors and by profiting by it. Many models use this system.
Many also have some sort of training that teaches grace, such as ballet or dance. Grace is a number-one requirement of a model. A beautiful girl, if she is awkward, is a failure as a model. Training is not a requirement, however. I find that many models have never been near a modeling school. They model well because they learned by doing.
Also, it must be remembered that a modeling school cannot guarantee you success as a model. There are too many graduates of such schools ever to place them all in jobs. All that a modeling school can teach is the fundamental facts of good grooming, graceful movement and a bit of the jargon of the business. From then on you are on your own.
Any girl, model school graduate or no, starts out the same way. She goes to a reputable model agency and asks to be taken on. The agency—if they think that she has the stuff—will ask to see pictures (snapshots will do), and will then send the prospective model off on a tour of photographers and fashion editors. If after the tour some of them call the agency to book her for a job, a career is under way. If not, there's not much to be done about it. Signing with an agency will not get you a job. All the agency can do is to take your bookings for you, arrange your schedule, send out your bills, and finally take a cut of your earnings to pay for its services.
Some models do their own booking, but that is difficult to manage. It means that they must have someone to answer their telephone at all hours, an expensive luxury. They must also make out their own bills and see to it that they are paid.
Most models prefer to have an agency handle the details for them. But they must always remember that the agency's function is to take care of their bookkeeping, not to provide them with jobs.
You see, there are a lot of obstacles in the way of becoming a successful model—unsteady pay, fickle fashion (one's face or figure may go out of style overnight), and stiff competition. If you have the makings of a model—thin figure, good bone structure, and grit—then you may get to the top. There are many who would rather not try, and I, for one, don't blame them.
In spite of all the discouraging things I have told you, if your heart is set on trying, then go ahead and try. Just make sure your heart is not overruling your head. Make sure you know what you're doing—and good luck.