Can you hack it?

Photo by: Michael Barton Art

I was reminded again that you need to have thick skin and not take things personally in this business of modeling.  You WILL get ignored, rejected, and sometimes even spoken down to, ( because of course, a model couldn't POSSIBLY have a brain)  or bluntly told that your "look" or your size, or your whatever, is not what is being looked for.  You will get reasons from age, to height to tattoos ( too many, not enough, not in the right spots)  Picture quality, style, retouching..... all of it. There will always be a myriad of reasons for you or your work  being rejected.  Or they will just not bother to respond at all .  Many will let this get to them, let it drag on them, and let it become some sort of editorial about their "worthiness" to be a model, or for some, even more sadly , even to exist.

You simply CAN NOT let it get to you.  You can make the choice either to keep going, or to give up if you can't handle it....but don't keep on doing it ,if it is going to contribute to  you being  miserable.... nothing is worth that. Trust me.

And trust me as well... it doesn't matter how thin, how tall, how big your boobs are or aren't, what styles you work in or don't work in...It WILL happen ...on more than one occasion, most likely fairly frequently.  I bet even Kate Moss or Cindy Crawford has ad campaigns tell them on occasion, that they aren't what  is being looked for.  This is part of the life.... if it isn't something that you can let just roll off your back, then this isn't something you will cope with well.

People  think about, and imagine the glamour  ( really,not so much,unless you count getting to play dress up- which is fun, no doubt) Sometimes call times are unpleasantly early, or late, or during evenings or weekends.  You have to network, network, network. You WILL be exhausted after a long shoot, trust me.  It can be too cold, to hot, wet, messy, dirty and just plain uncomfortable. BUT, you also have a chance to meet WONDERFUL people as Make up artists, designers, photographers ,magazine staffers, other models. Sometimes you get to do things that you would not normally get to ( sit in a vintage plane for example, or get to actually touch a wolf) Sometimes you get to travel.

What I am saying is this... you have to be willing and able to roll with the punches,keep going even with rejection,and keep a good attitude, and retain the ability to laugh the entire time....

This is a big part of being a model... it isn't just standing there a looking pretty. Your internal emotional landscape has to be able to cope as well.