Model Behavior

Thank you for all the tips regarding children's modeling. We've decided not to pursue a 'career' for Gabe (or Lily) at this point. However, I thought I'd share a bit of our experience thus far...

We've been told often that we should get Gabe into modeling. The reasons people share have ranged from his eyelashes, to his personality, to his good looks to his 'racial ambiguity.'

When he was 18 months old, he was scouted by Wilhemina Models. I turned down their offer because I thought he was too young to go through the long days - at that point he was still napping regularly and really needed a regimented schedule.

A few months ago, a company called VIP Talent Connect contacted me having seen Gabe's picture online. This company acts as a prescreening organization for larger agency companies. Every three months, they put on day-long meet and greet sessions for their prescreened clients to be paired with professional organizations ranging from Disney to Ford Models. They have a 95% success rate at these events. We went in for an initial meeting and they loved Gabe's look. However, they were concerned with his lack of ability to sit still. (Working models his age need to be able to do the same task repeatedly for the span of a photo shoot - on average 8 hours.) So they invited us back again to meet with their president and to see if Gabe could behave. We went the next day and he was fabulous, and the president LOVED him.

At this point, Tim and I were thinking maybe we should give it a try and see how he does. He could make some money for his 529-C and have a new experience. But we agreed we wouldn't put him through anything that wouldn't be enjoyable and that would keep him from being a kid.

Then came the catch from VIP. The beginning cost for participation in one of their day long events is $1,700. This includes 4 head-shots, security at the event, transportation to the event in NYC and food at the event. The package prices increase - up to $4,000 depending on the head-shots you get, which are taken the day of the event.

We, of course, we're not willing to pay, especially b/c we have no idea if he would like modeling or be capable of doing it.

Moral of the story being - if you are interested in pursuing modeling with your cutie-pie, I have some contacts that could potentially be helpful, but you may need to be prepared to pay!!