Why Would Anyone Want To Be A Model?

These people obviously have psychological/emotional problems. Such a boring job. What can it give a person? Attention. The starving yourself makes it an even dumber career. These people need to be praised, and need to be told that they're beautiful. Posing with a vacant look on your face for hours on end cannot be fun. Sure, you get money, but the majority of people who go into the industry, do so because it's supposedly so rewarding. Out of everything one could possibly aspire to be, modeling is what they choose? I feel bad for these people. Models end up being so fucked in the end, especially once they pass the big 2-5. America's Next Top Model probably makes this even more desirable. Too bad none of these kids realize that magazine ads are filled with celebs more than actual random models these days. Catwalking in Milan, and doing drugs in the toilet is their only other option.

• You don't know much about modeling or models. Models travel, meet creative people and are exposed to big-city life in world capitals. Many are pretty easygoing and enjoy themselves while it lasts.

• So what do you want, OP, designers coming down the catwalk with racks of their creations, pulling them out one by one, and chatting about them? "An zees one vas inspired by a zream I had vhen I vas a little boy ..." Hundreds of pages of pictures of belts, blouses, and panties on their own in catalogue magazines or on Vogue? The cover of Cosmo with all their inane headlines in big bold page-filling letters?

  They serve a purpose bigger than Wall St brokers and/or PR people

• [quote]America's Next Top Model probably makes this even more desirable. ANTM does not create models.

• r1, you're talking about a possible side benefit. That is not "the" job. r3 isn't even trying to make sense.

• I'd love to see Michael Kors modelling his own creations.

• It's a great way to get your foot in the door. A lot of women in show business started out as models.

• My sister was a model. She did it for money and travel opportunities, that's it. Not for attention, not for fame. She knew what she was getting into and was prepared for the bullshit that accompanies the fashion industry (drugs, pervs, etc.) and had no illusions about any of it and knew it'd be a short career.

• earrings caftans

• Most of these girls start around 14 or 15 years old. At that age you are a lot less likely to be thinking pragmatically. 25 seems an eternity away, and often, since so many are scouted in impoverished countries, there arent many other opportunities. Even if the career goes nowhere, at least they get to spend a couple of years living the high life before returning to work in a flip-flop factory. On top of that, the attention and validation and potential to make big money is very, very seductive. It's hardly indicitive of a psychological disorder that someone might want to forego 8 years of study (that she could return to at any time) in exchange for immediate immersion in a world of glamour, travel and compliments. And even if the modeling career goes nowhere, she will in that time hopefully make connections that she can parlay into another career in showbiz or the arts. It's not a hard sell of course the reality can be alot worse. The risks are higher. Agencies gouge new models, they quickly rack up bills for test shoots, lodging, air fare, comp cards, and often dont see much of the money they earn because of these hidden "expenses" Models are obviously sexualized and are going to be exposed to sexually charged situations, and use their own sexuality as a tool, at the very least in pictures, but you can be sure that spills over into professional and personal situations as well (but hey that happes in every other field too i suppose) high suicide and mental health and drug problems amongst models. Comes from loneliness, fatigue, lack of stablity, poor nutrition.Im not saying that there aren't ways to provide young girls in this situation with better support, but again, many of these girls come from families who do not have the knowledge or the resources to provide that support. Often the girls are hoping to be able to support their families, rather than the other way around. Which is, of course another pressure. im old enough to do a bit of this now in my 30s and treat it pragmatically. if i had a daughter gifted with the looks and interest to do this, she could, during breaks, and with supervision, until getting her high school degree, at which time she could choose to delay college and persue it, with the expectation that if she were not experiencing a certain level of success after two years, that I would no longer assist in supporting it. i think thats reasonable. Plenty kids go off the rails outside of the modeling industry as well, I think as long as you treat it sensibly and dont buy into the hype and dont expect the label of "model" to be a magic solution to all your problems, it can be a fun thing.

• Every pretty high school girl wants to be a model. To them, it looks like nothing more than being paid big money for something they already know how to do - wearing clothes and looking pretty. It seems so much easier than college or finding a real job, or becoming an adult. It's everything a 15-year-o ld girl wants, in one moneyed package.

  Well, you asked

• A top model can land a very rich husband if she plays her cards right.

• [quote]ANTM does not create models. ANTM minimum age is 18. All the good models have been working for years by then. ANTM "talent" comes from the model-reject pool, and there's only so much you can do with them.

• My goddaughter was a model through high school and college. She went on to law school and has no student loan debt. Her parents watched over her like hawks. She's a nice, smart kid and she never let any of it go to her head. She had a couple of experiences in law school with lecherous professors and knew exactly how to deal with them. Interesting, she said the female makeup/hair people were the worst to deal with -- maybe it was jealousy.

• I think it's a very legitimate question. Another strange one that enough people don't mention: why would anyone want to become an actor? A lot of the big Hollywood names are just elitist assholes shoved down our throats, but the majority of actors seem to be needy people desperate for validation. And they seem willing to do anything. With both actors and I guess models, there doesn't seem to be a central core to the person. They don't seem to have an identity.

• R14, I once read a book by a no-name actress, and she said that most actors are motivated by the desire to be someone else. If they can't totally become somoene else*, they'll settle for being other people for the length of a performance. * I think some of the most successfull narcissistic monsters really do become someone else, lose their original self and replace it with something constructed of ego and flattery. Like Tom Cruise and Joan Crawford.

• Why would anyone want to be a model? MONEY, my dear. Lots and lots of money. The really successful models, and even ones that don't become majorly successful, make a lot of money. I'd say that's the main motivating factor. Plus, there's all the perks: travel, adulation, being sought after. The "glamour", you know. Although it's not as glamourous as it's made out to be, especially for models who aren't in the "supermodel" catergory. It really is a hard business; you're judged by your looks, and nothing else. It can be soul-killing, and sometimes literally killing. I'm thinking of models who starve themselves and do drugs to stay boney thin. Some of them actually do kill themselves in their quest to be thin "as a model."

• Do models today really make that much money. Actresses get magazine covers and the lucrative perfume/makeup contracts.

• Glamour. Intrigue. Travel. How can you resist?

• Um... this thread is filled with fatties, elder gays, and ugg muggs. We wan't to be models because were fuckin HOT, and the world Worships us, right or wrong, they do. Just like you poor people imagine, all your problems will vanish if you have money. The same for if you were fucking hot, until this ideal is gone, You will always be forced to look upon our beautiful faces, worship are hot bodies, imagining your life would be better if you had, or looked at us. Losers!

• I think we are mistaking Model, for a SUCCESSFUL model, where the intrigue, travel etc is part of it. I was watching a docu on some nightly news show, and it looked very tough. Girls were scouted, moved to NY, but the AGENCIES who put up them up, paid their bills would take whatever they were owed for expenses from the girls checks until it was paid off. Great, if you are getting bookings, but this one girl finally got a job, she was out of money, finally booked a job, but all of it went to her agency and she was still broke. There are these douche baggy guys who are modelizers, club promoters who literally almost pimp these young models to make club appearances, finding out who the young new fresh models are they can sleep with, and promote their clubs, they date them, buy them food etc, it was kinda sick. But the girls who werent booking jobs, and out of money, it was there only result, not all of them sleep with these young douchey promoters, but they have to be careful, it def didn't look like glamour love and culture. That's for the successful ones.

• I was a model (I'm a man} for about 15 years. I liked it. It did pay very well, and it was easy work. I got to travel, but most of the time I was working in the places I went so It wasn't exactly like a paid vacation. But still, it was worth it. As I got older my work was more commercial than fashion. I stopped when I had saved enough. It is all about what you look like, so I had to get used to the constant assessments, both good and bad. My niece was also a model for several years, all of it high fashion, and she didn't like it. A lot of pressure to be underweight. Even though she was constantly working, her agents were always trying to get her to be thinner. She is 5'11" and probably 115 pds. She did appreciate the money though.

• r19 - drag queen from the uptown 1980's house circuit, faded feathers in her hair.

  Paris burned a while ago, hon

• Many models don't have much going for them other than looks, so being a model pays the bills for a couple of years.

• Who do you look like r21, how tall are you? 15 years is nice long modeling career for a man.

• being a woman model is probably a bit more lucrative than being a man model. i heard that when men models travel to, for instance, milan, the agency puts them up in the equivalent of a hostel, and the model has to pay the agency... men models make less money... and they're tossed aside much faster than a woman model. have you seen any of the models lately who appeared in vogue or GQ from a few years back?

• "Why Would Anyone Want To Be A Model?" Easy money.

• Who are the iditos that keep saying that they do it for the money? You have to be a super-model to bring in any serious cash these days. Most models are poor. epecially nowadays. I bet if r21, was a model now, he would make a lot less than he did back during his time. That's as about as stupid as saying gay porn-stars do what they do for the money. People who want to become models mainly do it for validation (OMG, I really am beautiful!) and that doesn't last long (OMG, I'm 25, I'm ancient and ugly!).

• I modeled in my late teens through college. Here's the thing. It's not like I "dreamed" of being a model and strove hard to attain that goal. The fact of the matter is, most models are scouted randomly then told they can make a shit-ton of money. And if you have any potential at all, it all happens pretty quickly. For me, it happened at Washington Square Park. A woman approached me from a place called Storm and said I could make money. Within 4-weeks I had booked my first job, for Details magazine. 6 weeks later I was in Milan. It was whirlwind and I had almost no time to think about it.

• I doubt very much that most models end up getting a GED, let alone a law degree. You'd be forced to drop out of school if you became a full-time model. If you had any intellectual potential at all you'd be wasting prime learning years being ordered around by other people, doing boring and occasionally humiliating things. A lot of them probably get into drugs and drinking because they're just bored and sick of being treated like pieces of meat and having to deal with assholes all day.

• R28, how much did you earn total? How much did the agency take? Any stories you'd like to share (not gossip about others, just some insight into your experiences)?

• Yesterday, I saw Bianca modeling for Sears. But, wait...

• The model Im crushing on right now was a working in corporate when someone encouraged him to send his pictures into an agency. He's was 24 at the time, very modest, and now at 27 he travels full time around the world. He's successful, billboards in Times Square, music video love interest, etc. r29, schools and law degrees will always be there for models when they get tired of the industry. It can be a drag, but so is working as a corporate drone. Like r28 said, a lot of models just fall into small gigs, and if you are exceptionally beautiful like the guy Im talking about you blow up overnight and make a killing.

• I modeled in my early 20's and was fairly successful and you'd probably recognize some of my print work. The money was great but the hours were long and you had to be a professional or you wouldn't keep getting work. Exotic locations were great and I met a lot of interesting people. Being treated like a commodity was demeaning at times but it was worth it for the money. Very competitive industry.

  Anonymous%20

• My cousin made it onto ANTM. Fun fact!

• No one gives a shit about male models, as Tyra Banks once said. Modeling is still (thank god) one industry where women make more than men, have 10 times as much opportunity, and are generally treated much better. R28 is correct. Most working models don't "dream" of it, much less enter contests to become a model. Many beauties were found in airports, suburban malls, or athletic competitions.

• Modeling Schools and Modeling Competitions are just predators making a quick buck from the needy egos of middle class parents and their butt ugly kids. A fool and their money are soon parted. I can train a model in seconds, just give me about 20,000 people from the general population and I will snap my fingers twice - You *snap* are now trained to be a model and You *snap* are now trained to be a model....class over! The other 19,998 got an "F".

• R36 True shit! I knew some girls back in college who went to "modeling school" where they were sold classes (I shit you not) on reading cue cards. The only jobs they landed after "graduating" were promotional demonstrating gigs at the local mall. $12/hr showing off the Swiffer.

• r36, your school would fail in two seconds! I mean, you didn't even mention anything about smizing. All the good modeling schools teach their students how to smize.

  smizing as I type

• A friend modeled in high school and college. She'd never dreamed of it, her mother pushed her into it, but only because my friend had had some major health issues, and her mother thought it would boost her damaged self-esteem. My friend isn't beautiful, BTW, but is six feet tall and was very thin as a teen. It was also a way to defray the expenses of a VERY good college. My friend (and her mother) never once thought of delaying or skipping that college, and modelling was the best-paying part-time job a teenaged girl could get.

• How else are you going to accumulate a $150,000,000 fortune (not an exaggeration) without having to bother with an education or learning any lines? Not to mention the fringe benefits, like marrying a world-famous athlete.

  Gisele%20Bundchen

• ^^^Fuck off, Jism Bukkake.

• During the Yukon Gold Rush - 4 times as much money was made hosing the naive want-to-be rich types, selling them mining supplies as was ever made panning Gold. For every 15 year old, 109 lbs, 5'11" model making money there are thousands of broke, chubby, short, old, ugly, emotionally needy momma's girls getting milked.

• Anybody have any gossip about Charley Speed?

  http://www.models1blog.com/2011/03/charlie-speed.html

• I would think ego drives the desire to be a model more than anything.

• I think the Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency show gave some good insight of what the modeling job is like. Even if you have an ego it pretty much gets left at the door. I can also understand why male models get fucked in the head, some of them have never been judged solely by their looks ever in life before. The women have a better handle on that which is probably why they still make more than male models.

  Brian%20Key%20Hole

• "I would think ego drives the desire to be a model more than anything." No, I think the dream of big money, and avoiding a real job, are much stronger motivators. Do you remember being a teenager? Every kid I knew desperately wanted a way to avoid getting a boring, soul-sucking, job like our parents had. Nerdy kids wanted to be in the arts (or play computer game for a living), jock boys wanted to be pro athletes, and pretty girls wanted to be models.

• The emotional need to be famous, be it a model, actress or singer, is preyed upon. Need creates opportunity.

• So they can sleep with an ugly rock star.

  Anonymous

• Wow, this chick Alex in the top left is stunningly beautiful. Does anyone have any other pics of her? I'm a gay dude, not lesbionic.

  http://models.fordmodels.com/models

• This is what Gia Carangi told a woman who told her that her six year old daughter had done a few modeling jobs and wanted to keep trying for more work, despite the expense of traveling to New York and going on auditions: "Don't do it. Even if she wants it, don't let her do it. I used to be a model. You don't want your kid to be a model."

• Those pics at R49's link show you are proof that ou do NOT have to be pretty to be a model; quite a few of those girls have truly ugly or weird faces. All you need to be a model is a very tall, very thin body; beauty is not mandatory.