Please be sure and look at "Older Posts" on the bottom of the page before you get any further. Reading the older blogs first will make more sense out of the other ones.
We started posting pictures on Yahoo groups. We immediately got huge response and many comments and inquiries. It looked like we had made the right move. Most models that I ever worked with never got paid for modeling. They only paid money to the agency for pictures, purses and overnight bags with the agency name on it. I guess it looked hip at airports of spending the night with a friend to sport the overnight bag with the agency name on it.
Cindy was special in my mind. Here you had this kid of 12 from a very money challenged rather dysfunctional (lack of funds can make anyone dysfunctional)family with the talent, looks and desire to be a success in the most natural field for her. Getting her with and agency was not the brightest option. She did go with an agency for a while but never got a call fir a go-see. We quit putting our faith in modeling agencies.
In actuality, models get their own jobs mostly if they have an ambitious mother to drive the and see photographers personally and show them their portfolios and leave them a comp card. The photographer always wants to upgrade his own portfolio. If the girl has a certain look that motivates him, he will invite her to do a test session. If the girl does great pictures with him, there's a great chance that he will request her for the next shoot that would work out well if age, race, and other factors are right for the job. The best way for an model in her twenties to get lots of work fast is to move in with a successful photographer (if he's straight).
Of course, this was never an option for Cindy at twelve or any age, for that matter. Cindy is no prude, but would never take such a path. Success in mainstream modeling is sort of like trying to talk to Jimmy Hendrix on the Ouija board. You may think your talking to the right person, but most likely it's all in the mind. The mind when aligned toward success in movies, modeling or music will believe almost anything to justify one's continuation in a field where their is little or no chance for success.
Internet models usually never have to pay for anything. They get paid. Cindy, in high school, came for one of the deprived families but dressed like a debutante because of all the clothes may fans bought her. She was the constant recipient of very nice clothes. For Christmas she recieved more gifts than you can imagine, so many beautiful coats that she gave many of them away to other girls at her apartment.
Cindy's pictures were always very conservative, never getting sexual. (Of course, some of Cindy's relatives thought they were all bad.) Yet she held the top spot in the world of teen modeling for several years, from about 2003 to 2010. There right now there is much dissaray in the teen modeling scene because of the credit card companies. I have to say, I can't blame the credit card companies for pulling credit card priviledges from those who host teen models. Unfortunately, many of those who run teen modeling sites depict the girls as what I call the fishnet tots, meaning girls who are depicted in clothing that is slutty or very rediculous considering their ages.
The reason that credit card companies don't want to be the payment gateway for teen modeling sites is that there is a certain amount of child porn. When a web host or photographer gets child porn published on a website and there are credit cards involved, the law enforcement agencies go into the offices of the credit card companies to get the information on those who subscribed to these sites. Can you imagine how demoralizing and upsetting it would be to have a bunch of policemen in your place of work to find names and addresses of those who subscribe to kiddy porn?
The theory is: if it can happen, why take the chance? I can't blame the credit card companies for being extra cautious. There is nothing illegal about a teen modeling site as long as they obey the laws surrounding this activity. But sites can change their whole image in a few minutes.
Now we go back time. We got a call from a TV show called 48 Hours. They explained that they were in Dallas and wanted to feature us on their show. They were very flattering to us to get us to agree to do the show. We took the opportunity and it was a bit of a disaster. My interviews with Erin Moriarity consisted mainly of us sitting down and looking at the Cindy's site. Erin tried to shoot down pictures of Cindy by saying that Cindy's holding hands at the state fair with her sister was promoting lesbianism. All I could do was look at her and shake my head.
Erin had a much worse time with Cindy. She asked Cindy how she could ever express a modeling career when Cindy was only 5'3". Cindy was 12 years old at the time a normal height at her age. Erin indicated that she would not reach modeling height of at least 5'8" by the time would be 18. Everyone guffawed directed at Erin when Cindy replied, "Well, I guess I'll have to wear high heels,then." They shot a lot of footage of Cindy and me together and separately. Most all the positive footage was not shown. All the footage that could be spun critically was shown.
This show was such a journalistic disaster for 48 hours that we laugh it off to this day. When asked what my role was with Cindy, I said that I was skating coach training an Olympic caliber talent. Yes, I made money at this, but my emotions, my goals were to see it through that Cindy would become rich and famous by my promotions and advice.
There was a touching moment when I was allowed to interview Cindy and Cindy began to talk about how overwhelming this was becoming withs this TV coverage and all the negative hoopla. There was this point where even the jaded TV crew were siding up with Cindy.
We played a football game for the cameras with Cindy and me on one side and my two grandsons on the other. They scored the first touchdown, but Cindy and I came back when I threw her a long pass which which she leaped to catch, scored and made this magnificent spike while doing the knee wobble. It was something.
As a way of putting us down, Erin and crew showed up at New York's Ford agency to interview them about what the thought of other girls that were on the show. (They intervied other teens who were doing very provocative stuff.) On TV the Eileen Ford Agency (I think that's her name) was negative about the other girls, but when she saw pictures of Cindy, she said that Cindy really had it and this girl was ready to go with a major agency like Ford. Of course, we all know that most TV "news" investigations are already scripted before anyone goes to the field, to fit the agenda of the network. So Eileen Ford's recommendation never made it on the show.
How do I know about the Ford Agency incident? Because the producer of the 48 Hours show who came to Dallas called me later and told these details. Another funny incident happened the next day. Erin was gone and the "investigation" was not headed by a young man who wanted blood from these interviews most likely to bolster his career. He chose to do footage of Cindy showing her large closet full of great clothes, Teddy bears and other gifts of from fans. He would ask for the names of the senders of these gifts. I objected to this because these gifts were sent privately and all info about these gift senders were not for national TV. The young man agreed begrudgingly.
I made a very vocal announcement that there would be no names of member asked for or else. The young man asked me why and I told him that if he asked any more questions about who some of the fans and gift senders were, I would soak the camera in water. The young idiot still persisted in asking another "who" question. The cameraman immediately groaned protecting his camera and moved his focus to the ceiling thus stifling the young man's attempt to get anyone's name.
Why do the networks so desire to make Teen Modeling the bad guy. Because the deep pockets of most any household is somewhat bored with TV unless it's some sporting event. Intelligent women and males like to spend their time on the Internet or on their computors. So one of the main purposes of these shows was to steer people away from the Internet because it's a "dangerous place and you could get arrested." Besides that we have little Amy considering "doing it" on the next episode of the Family Values Show and we know the men will like that one.
It's funny that you can go on cable tv and most of the time they will feature whole shows of porn stars having sex over and over. These shows are on when kids of all ages are up and surfing the TV.
If you notice, there are no longer any more "exposees" of the teen modeling industries. People have come to realize that almost all investigative reporting is agenda driven and has little basis in fact. It has become proven that every time there is a show featuring some teen model that they are trying to make look bad, it drives people her web sites by in droves. Sort of self-defeating.
When the Oprah show featuring Cindy (we had a full hour)was aired, I literally could not access the site for four days, it drove so many people to her site. Many girls applied to be models from all over because they saw an opportunity to do something that had always been denied them. Cindy became to the teen modeling scene what Scotch is to cellophane tape. We got a lot of hate mail but ten times that in support of what we do.
We will have much more on the Oprah show incident in the next blog. -Curt
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