Modeling is, as you can imagine, a hard industry to crack into.  It is a very lucky young starlet who gets spotted in the street, most of us have to put ourselves out there and literally shine to get noticed. This week, we’re introducing one of our friends, a model who is new to the industry and all too familiar with the hardships and spectacular triumphs that come to any new model who tries to crack into this notoriously hard industry.  This week she is talking inner demons and portfolio companies.

Hi, my name is Amy* and I am, if you are to believe the reports, one of the up and coming new talents in the modeling industry and I am here at Modeling Advice hoping to advise you on how to not only get on this ladder, but have a chance at the top rung.

I wasn’t one of these girls who were spotted in the street.  In all honesty as a younger girl, I was gawky and too tall, always not quite happy with my body, which seemed to have too many angles in it, which did wonders for my co-ordination!  I got bullied because of it and I did honestly think I was this hideous ‘thing’…and then I hit puberty!  Those angles turned into dainty joints and long limbs and I actually began to feel like maybe I was a human after all.  The bullying from the boys stopped, the bitchy comments from the girls started, but I was euphoric to know that now it was jealously and there really wasn’t anything wrong with me.

With my new found confidence brought new friends, boyfriends, a feeling of belonging and it was at a family photo session that I realised just how much I liked being in font of the lens, something I had avoided at all costs when I was younger and so when my friends decided that they wanted to do something similar I jumped at the chance.  We had our prom coming up and so went dolled up to the nines to get pictures done in our dresses and then just have a muck about with the rest of our time in the studio.

I loved it and buoyed by the photographer telling me I was a natural I started seriously considering modeling as something I could do, proof of how far I’d already come.  I started researching modeling agencies, reading every fashion magazine and checking the back pages to see who my favourite models were signed with.  But despite it all, I never quite had the confidence to go for it, I figured I’d get laughed at and I never wanted that to happen again.

It was my boyfriend, Mark*, who gave me the confidence to go and see if I had what it takes.  He was laughing through my pictures on a social networking site including those from the shoot with my friends and then through the growing number of me that I was now proud to show off.  He looked seriously at them and me for a moment and then mentioned something that his sister – who has worked as a model – did when she was first starting out.  Id never met her, but he told me all about the portfolio company she had gone to to have a professional portfolio made and told me if I was serious I should contact them and that she always advised anyone wanting to get into the industry to do the same.