"You Can Become A Teen Model"

This article appeared in the July 1961 issue of Teen Life Magazine
-- BY Sandra Dee as told to -- Lou Larkin


If you've been thinking seriously about becoming a teenage model, if you are imagining yourself in the midst of lights,cameras and lots of action, if you are envisioning the thrill of seeing your face on billboards, in magazines and newspapers, if you've been dreaming of the glamor, excitement and luxurious leisure that you think goes with being a high-salaried, successful adolescent mannequin--you are in for a shock!

It is true that the pay is remarkably generous compared to the salaries you might receive as a secretary.

But I can tell you from long and difficult experience, that modeling is a hard, sometimes boring and, most certainly, a physically exhausting career that at times will try your patience, your temperament and your heart.

It is not a life of glamor nor leisure, but I can understand why you think it is. You see the results. The pictures of teenagers in fine clothes, in photographs that are drenched in color. You don't know the work, the preparation and, all too frequently, the disappointments that are drained from and imposed upon the model before that beautiful picture comes into existence.

I became a model before I reached my teens and by the time I was 13 my early experience had put me in a position to understand many things about modeling that a girl who started at 12 would not appreciate.

It is true. At one time, when I was 11, I received nearly $80,000 in fees in that year. I knew it was a lot of money. But all that money really meant very little to me.

As we go along in this article you will soon understand that nothing in life can be obtained without losing or sacrificing some things which, in the end, you may find were worth much more than you bargained for.

As long as there are advertisements for clothes, toothpaste, shampoos, shoes, hose, food, there will be models. For complicated psychological reasons, pictures of people, using or consuming the product, help sell that product.

The model, however, is rarely concerned with the psychology of selling. She has more important, more difficult problems of her own.

The first and most demanding qualification any teen model must have is physical appearance. And don't for one moment think that because you think you're attractive that everyone else will. It has nothing to do with your real, in-the-flesh appearance. I've known many young girls who were absolutely beautiful in person, but because of the peculiar and often maddening tricks the camera plays when taking a photograph, pictures of those girls turned out dreadful. You wouldn't think they were the same persons.

Again. I've known girls who were not attractive in person, yet their photographs were gorgeous. One way or the other, the first and most critical test of all, if you are thinking about modeling as a career, is whether you are photogenic.

If your bone structure is wrong or your eyes not shaped correctly or your mouth is too small or too large, you're out of it before you start. This is a hard, cruel fact and deeply disappointing to discover this prevents many young girls from becoming models.

Don't cry over it. Every girl can't be a model.

But let us suppose you have a chance. You get compliments from your friends. You're reasonably attractive. Sooner or later someone is going to say, "You ought to be a model."

Suddenly you are dizzy and your mind is filled with the exciting possibilities.

What should you do?

There are so many things you might do that there is not space enough here to tell them all. But, if it will help, I'll discuss a few of the more critical requirements you must meet if (it's a big, big IF by the way), you want to try.

In the first place you must want to be a model. In your heart, in your mind. I hear so many girls say they want to be models. They're mixed up. What they really want is the glamor and excitement they think they will experlence as models.

Model agents can tell the difference in about thirty seconds. You don't fool those experienced men. They get thousands of applications every year. They've attended hundreds of auditions. They are interested only in photogenic girls who want to work and the girl, or the parents of the girl, who feel they can deceive the executive heads of professional model agencies are due for bitter disappointments.

Now, assuming that you are photogenic and you honestly want to be a model, what comes next?

I'll tell you. You start working hard, harder than you've ever worked in your life and you won't get paid for it. Not in money, at least.

Because you must now learn to do all things properly, things you never thought of before.

I cannot go into great detail on these points. They are better and more comprehensively discussed in good books on modeling. In brief, you must learn to walk gracefully, develop personal and mental poise, watch your weight, your complexion, your make-up, your hair, every tiny thing about yourself that until now seemed insignificant.

I've known models, beautiful girls, who never spend less than two hours making up. Incredible? Perhaps, but it's all part of the job.

You must learn to get to bed early, models need more sleep and rest than other girls.

That last is a deceptively difficult rule to live by.

Extra sleep means crowding all the chores of your personal life into shorter hours. Homework for example, becomes a real problem. To get that rest you must give up parties, shopping tours and those happy, laughing record-listening sessions. You just won't have the time.

And don't make the mistake of thinking that you need rest only the night before a modeling assignment. To look good that morning will require your going to bed early four and five nights previously.

Those wonderful dates with those wonderful boys on Friday and Saturday nights? You can keep them if you're home by ten. You've got to have that rest!

The last shampoo commercial I did began at 6 o'clock--in the morning. That meant I was out of bed at 4:30 A.M. Breakfast, 45 minutes making up (and that's fast!) the time it took to get to the studio -- well, I just made it. You can imagine how much make-up would have helped if I had been painting the town until 1 A.M. as Mrs Bobby Darin the night before.

I was in front of the cameras at 6:15 A.M. During the day I got one hour for lunch. We finished at 8 P.M. that evening--for a 60-second commercial!

If you have any notion that modeling, in any form, is easy, forget it.

Until now I've told you only of the many disadvantages of being a teenage model.

In all fairness I must also discuss the advantages and they are many. But their worth is pretty much dependent on your point of view.

The pay for instance, is excellent. You will be able to buy fine clothes, eat good food (but very little of it), you will enjoy an unusual popularity with your friends and with strangers who recognize you. Financially you will be of great assistance to your parents. And whether you continue modeling or not, as you grow you will become poised and acquire a tremendous fund of knowledge you might not otherwise come by.

But the sacrifices must be made. To even get a start as a model you must make them, and they become greater if you're successful. They are not easy to make. You find yourself almost always in the company of adults and the time you have for all the pleasure of being a teenager will be cut to minimum. Your boyfriends and girlfriends will be few. You won't have time to be with the old ones or make new ones.

Sooner or later you will be haunted by loneliness, the yearning to be with the kids of your own age, to share in the fun and laughter.

You will miss all of this.

By the time you are a woman you may look back and wish in a way, that you let someone else pose for the pretty pictures.

You may look back and wish for another try at the teens which in every girl's life should be a time of happiness and a hundred friends and a thousand bright and merry parties that will be the fondest memories of your life.

Once gone, your teens can never be recaptured.

All the wishing in the world won't help.

I know it won't.

But if in your mind and heart you can think of nothing else, if every, impulse and inclination you experience insists that you be a model, if you can make the sacrifices, nothing I can say will stop you from trying to become a teenage model.

And since I can't say anything to stop you, I'll say something which I hope will help you.

Good luck!




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