Teen's Modeling Dream

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Suckers are not born a minute, but dreamers are. We all dream — of fame, fortune, and glory — and for teenage girls, all three are rolled into one tenacious fantasy: the dream of being a fashion model.
Enter the Model Search, an event run by various talent-hunting corporations who promise a shot at making these dreams come true for fees ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars.
One such Model Search was underway last month at a hotel in midtown NYC, where, over a few days, thousands arrived to impress representatives from over 100 international modeling and talent agencies. In the modeling showcase alone, over 500 people ages 13-25 strutted down an elevated runway constructed in the hotel's ballroom, alongside which rows of agents sat and watched.
I followed a modeling agency's scout — let's call her Allie — as she attended the search for three days. As it turns out, Allie and the hundreds of agents here are not too interested in what's on the runway. They actually find it all rather boring and tasteless.
DAY ONE: CATTLE CALL
Set to the steady beat of loud pop tunes, the lights dim to blue, an announcer blandly states, "Number 6651," and a young woman walks to the center of the runway, where she strikes a pose, probably intended to create the effect of a sexy silhouette like the opening credits of a Bond movie. Instead, the young woman does an awkward shuffle getting into a pose, thrusting arms back, dropping the chin, then waiting for the cue. Bright lights illuminate the stage and two giant screens display her photos (is that a Glamour Shots picture?) and she charges to the end of the runway for another shuffle-and-pose in front of a row of judges. Number 6651 then turns and walks off the end of the runway via a set of portable stairs. Her total time on the runway: 27 seconds. Her total cost to be here: $5,000.
Every so often, a piercing screech of cheering adolescent girls explodes from a corner of the room to show support for a friend onstage. "That's really irritating," says Allie, the scout, sitting next to me alongside the runway.
Onstage, the girls' bodies don't seem to be of their own possession, more like alien vessels performing forced personas ranging from the diva (all hips and bouncing shoulders) to the beauty queen (with the plastered smile and regal gait). I worry at several moments that someone might not make it to the end of the runway, especially the nervous wrecks, who have quivering shoulders and arms that resist movement entirely.
"See what you've been missing?" Allie says leaning over.
Unlike the agents, who wear mostly black and little makeup, the runway is awash in color, with smoky eye shadows, glossy lips, puffy dresses, and consistently high heels. The skirts are short, the accessories are camp: feathers, hats, knee-highs, a tutu! One outfit consists of white high-heels, red-striped socks, pink hot pants, and a sweater of gold sequins. I'll give her credit for covering her crotch, having already seen an unfair share of butt cheeks exposed in micro-minis.
"You know what's really sad?" Allie leans over again. "These people are 14 and 15."
The saddest thing at a model search contest is not the sight of girls performing womanhood defined as display object. Nor is it their exceedingly slim chances to ever be the real deal. What's really sad is the state of the agents: they sit with arms folded, yawning regularly, checking their BlackBerrys. After a solid two hours, Allie has seen over 300 contestants. She's recorded just eight numbers for callbacks.
Given the slim pickings and what looks like a big parody of their industry, why do agents bother coming to a model search?
Because another kind of search is in full swing downstairs in the hotel bar, where agents from around the world convene to gossip, network, and commence the delicate work of negotiating the global trade in models, essentially making deals across regional and overseas markets.
At the bar, Allie grabs a table and a glass of white wine and gets to work, greeting agents from Tokyo, L.A., Paris, and Houston. She pulls out her iPad to showcase portfolios of her models that are available to travel abroad.
Meanwhile, agents ridicule the wannabe runway, from the "hooker heels" to the outfit choices. About their physiques, Allie adds gravely, "I've never seen so many out of shape bodies."
"Ugh…and tomorrow's the swimsuits," notes Jane, an agent from L.A. "Who wants to see that?"
DAY TWO: SWIMWEAR
On the runway, there are few swimsuit edition bodies, and the agents sit unimpressed. "It's a crap shoot," an Atlanta agent says when I ask if she expects to find any new faces today.
Not just anyone gets this chance to meet the agents. It's invitation only, and hopefuls are recruited to spend their thousands on the Model Search through expensive modeling schools like Barbizon in strip malls across the country.
Some agents are even apologetic for what they see is the exploitation of vulnerable, if foolish, kids and their parents. But they need to be at the event's cocktail party to network, and in exchange for the complimentary cocktails and hotel room, agents participate in the official events. It's not that the Model Search never works for a lucky few — one in a million like Jessica Alba have passed through similar doors — but this is a poor way of finding an agent. For $5,000 cheaper, any hopeful can walk into an agency's "Open Call" for an evaluation.
Indeed, the agents' cocktail party is like the hall of fame of model managers: here are renowned scouts rubbing shoulders with the ex-managers of supermodels. A young hopeful would have reason to want to be here. Unfortunately for her, this cocktail hour really is invitation only.
DAY THREE: CALLBACKS
The odds of getting a callback are not good: Allie issues just 23, which is less than 5% of the hopefuls she's seen. The odds of a callback leading to stardom are even worse: "I must have been really out of it yesterday," Jane from L.A. whispers. "Some of them when they turn up [for callbacks] you're just like, ugh, what was I thinking!"
Seated at one of 100 tables in the ballroom, Allie greets a 17 year-old brunette who sits down for her callback. Allie asks her the usual: Where are you from, love? How old are you? What's mom's name? After taking digital pictures, Allie explains that she might be interested in seeing more, "But" — and here comes the clincher — "you'll need to get in shape." The girl is 5'9" and probably 130 pounds.
"I feel creepy telling you this," Allie continues, "But we are scouts so we notice these things, and I did see you in swimsuit yesterday. Now I can typically tell if a girl is at the bone and can't lose anymore, and you have a little, um, bit of tush you can shed." The girl politely agrees, "I've got some flesh, I know," and promises to work out and send new pictures.
Across the room, Jane is speaking to a thin fresh-faced girl. Later, looking over her digital images, she says, "You know what it is? Her eyes, nose, mouth, forehead — she's uneven. Her face is asymmetrical, see?" As an afterthought, she adds, "Yeah, it's a shame, really."
The room empties by lunchtime, and most of the agents have seen enough. I ask the owner of a Hong Kong agency if she found any future talent. "No," she replies, shaking her head. "To be honest it's just a networking event. The girls, most of them don't even have the right measurements. For most of them, today is going to be a wake-up call."
But downstairs in the lobby, excited girls congregate and chatter. A group of 15-year-olds gather in the corner, looking at each other's pictures. The cost of the Model Search, they explain, was "definitely worth it" because it was a good experience: "It was really fun," a girl says, although another adds, "I wish you didn't have to be so tall to be a model, then I could do it." Still, she received 2 callbacks, and is pleased with the event, if not with being 5'6".
A Tokyo agent carrying measuring tape walks past us, accompanied by a noticeably stunning brunette — turns out she's already a working model scouted last year on the streets of Soho, and she's here to audition for potential work in Japan. The girls don't seem to notice. One of them is now chatting about the next upcoming Model Search in Boston. So the dream, and the scheme, continues. "I just want to make money and have fun," she explains when I ask her why she wants to be model. "And when I grow up I want to be a doctor, and just, like, model on the side."
Who wants a wake-up call, when your dreams are this sweet?
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Ashley Mears is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Boston University.
I'm 18, but part of me kind of wants to go to one of these "modelling schools." I'm a pretty girl, but I never really learned how to take pretty girl pictures. Some girls I know can just strike a pose, but when I try I always end up looking like an idiot. I have no idea what they do in those places. Would dealing with that nonsense would allow me overcome my photo awkwardness, or would it just be a waste of time?

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Feds crack down on teen, preteen ‘model’ sites
The operators of dozens of teen and preteen “modeling sites” that critics say are nothing more than eye candy for pedophiles have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama for allegedly trafficking in “visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
The operators of dozens of teen and preteen “modeling sites” that critics say are nothing more than eye candy for pedophiles have been indicted by a federal grand jury in Alabama for allegedly trafficking in “visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
The indictment, unsealed this week in Birmingham, Ala., charges Webe Web Corp. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and its principals, Marc Evan Greenberg and Jeffrey Robert Libman, with 80 counts of conspiracy and interstate trafficking of the images of teen and preteen girls on dozens of Web sites operated by the company. Both men were arrested Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale and are due to be arraigned on Friday.
Photographer Jeff Pierson of Brookwood, Ala., also was charged with two counts of using a computer to “transport child pornography in interstate commerce” from January 2003 through 2004. Authorities said Pierson is cooperating with prosecutors.
“The images charged are not legitimate child modeling, but rather lascivious poses one would expect to see in an adult magazine,” U.S. Attorney Alice H. Martin said in a statement announcing the indictments and the closure of all the Webe Web sites. “Here lewd has met lucrative, and exploitation of a child’s innocence equals profits.”
In an e-mail interview, Martin told MSNBC.com that prosecutors will press charges against the defendants for photos showing the young girls scantily clothed but not nude under a federal statute that deems images that “show lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area” to be child pornography.
No nudity, but ‘sexually suggestive poses’
“There are no semi-nude or nude images,” she said. “The children are dressed in underwear, adult lingerie, high heels, etc., and placed in sexually suggestive poses which focus the viewer's attention on the genital or pubic area. Some are posed with facial expressions and in positions that suggest a willingness to engage in sexual activity.”
If convicted of all charges, Greenberg and Libman could be sent to prison for up to 20 years and fined up to $250,000 for each count. They also face forfeiture of all proceeds from the Web sites.
Phone calls to the company offices and the homes of Libman and Greenberg were not answered.
MSNBC.com interviewed the woman whose complaint triggered the investigation of Pierson and Webe Web, who agreed to talk on the condition that neither she nor her daughter be identified.
She said she naively answered an online advertisement for preteen models several years ago so that her then-10-year-old daughter could begin to build a portfolio.
She and her daughter drove to Pierson’s home studio, where they met the photographer, his wife and the couple’s 12-year-old daughter.
“They seemed like perfect people,” she recalled. “They said she would have a Web site so that people looking for models would offer her jobs.”
Mother recounts her horror
The woman said that everything seemed on the up and up during the initial visit, which included some test shots of the girl wearing different outfits, so she signed a contract.
But on the second visit, she said, Pierson kept her out of the studio, asking her to remain in an adjacent room where she could see him but not her daughter.
“He said it makes the models nervous,” she said.
The woman said she sat chatting with the photographer and his wife during the daylong shoot and had no inkling what was going on until she walked into the studio when Pierson had left the room for a moment and saw her daughter wearing only a thong and a halter top.
“That feeling is a feeling I don’t wish on anybody,” she said.
The woman said that she and her daughter were frightened to leave because Pierson had earlier displayed a handgun he kept in the house, so they endured several more hours in the studio.
“I said ‘We can’t do this,’ but my daughter said she was scared to leave and let’s get through this and then we won’t come back,” she said. “It was really hard.”
Once they left, the woman said she “went straight to the FBI” in Birmingham and told them what Pierson had done.
Authorities seek other photographers
It is not known how many children Pierson photographed for Webe Web, but Martin said he was responsible for about 30 percent of the photos on the 60 or so sites that the company hosted from the Netherlands and has told prosecutors that the company paid him $270,000 for his work. Martin said investigators were continuing to try to identify other photographers who worked for the company.
Webe Web first drew scrutiny in 2001, when NBC's Miami affiliate, WTVJ, reported that the company was operating a handful of Web sites featuring young girls wearing bathing suits and other skimpy outfits and charging “members” to view additional photos.
Webe Web representatives defended the business model, denying the sites were aimed at pedophiles, but the controversy snowballed, and soon the company was featured in unflattering spots on national news programs like “Dateline NBC” and “Oprah.”
The sites also attracted the attention of Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who in 2002 introduced a bill called the Child Modeling Exploitation Prevention Act to attempt to tighten restrictions on the sale of photographs of minors. The bill died in committee amid objections from civil libertarians and commercial interests.
Foley resigned from Congress in September after it was reported that he exchanged inappropriate e-mails with a teenage page.
The filing of criminal charges against Webe Web is at least the second federal criminal case brought against operators of Web sites featuring minors in provocative poses. Two Utah men, Matthew Duhamel and Charles Granere, are facing federal child pornography charges for a child modeling site that featured minors in lingerie.
Will juries buy ‘child porn’ argument?
But Frederick Lane, a lawyer who specializes in Internet issues and author of "Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age," said it is an open question whether the hardball legal tactic will prove effective.
“It quickly gets into a legal gray area, like parents taking photos of their kids, so prosecutors have been reluctant to use it as a tool,” he said. “… From what I’ve seen, there’s too much gray area there in terms of persuading a jury that the photographs actually constitute child pornography.”
But he said that the “financial piece” — the fact that Webe Web charged customers $20 a month to subscribe to each girl’s Web site — may help the prosecution overcome that obstacle.
“That’s one of the things that is more persuasive to juries, a sense of exploitation of these girls,” he said.
For the defense, he said, the argument likely will hearken back to the late Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s oft-repeated comment about "hard-core" pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
“For the defense point of view, the argument is, ‘Here is real child pornography, and that is not what this child is doing,’” he said.
No matter the outcome of the criminal case, it will do little to discourage other operators unless it leads to new legislation with clearer strictures against risqué photos of minors, said Don Austen, who has been active in pressuring ISPs to drop clients running preteen and teen modeling sites.
New laws needed, advocate says
“Just winning a case is not going to affect anything unless this brings to light what’s going on,” said Austen, who also runs the Thursday’s Child hot line for teenage runaways.
He also said that while some defend the “modeling” sites as harmless, they desensitize the young girls to sex. He said he knows of two girls who started out as teen “models” on such Web sites that graduated into adult pornography after they turned 18.
“It’s not just that she’s feeling embarrassment and feeling used. … It changes lives,” he said.
The damage isn’t exclusive to the children, said the woman who told authorities about Pierson.
She said she remains wracked with guilt because she didn’t sense that she was putting her daughter at risk until it was too late. Now, she said, the girl is fearful of being alone with men and recently broke down when a male doctor sought to examine her.
“I blame myself so much, but I never dreamed that could happen,” she said. “I thought love would protect her, but I guess I was just stupid.”
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