"Your child should be a model!"

When your kid is a child model, the number one question people ask is, “How did you get started in that?”  (Incidentally, the second question is, “Is that like Toddlers and Tiaras?”  But more on that at a different time.)  I guess most model moms start with the same intro, which is that lots of people said my daughter was really pretty and should model.  When you start to hear it a lot, and I mean A LOT, wheels start turning in your head.  I mean, who hasn’t envisioned their kid in a baby gap ad?  Just once?

I did a little research and found a great article in Parents magazine that was a few years old at the time.  The article gave some background about the industry and followed a model mom for a day “on the job.”  The first myth debunked in the article: CHILD MODELS DO NOT MAKE A LOT OF MONEY.  This is NOT a “don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000” industry as the gorgeous supermodel Linda Evangelista said in a Vogue interview published in 1990.  The Parents article portrayed the day itself as less-than-glamorous; mostly schlepping around New York with a potentially ornery child.  I wasn’t exactly sucked in to the child modeling world, but my interest was definitely piqued.

The first consideration – and this is even more important than an attractive child, I think – has to be your distance from New York City and your comfort level with navigating the city.  (Or LA, or Miami, etc.)  I’m a city girl in a country town (well, I went to college and worked in NYC and now I live in Litchfield County, CT) and I am comfortable getting around the city, know the subways pretty well, and can drive the streets with the best of the cabbies.  A little less promising, however, was our 100 mile distance from the city.  When I lived further south in CT, I could drive to my old neighborhood in the city in an hour and fifteen minutes.  That driving experience was what was burned into my brain.  Now, however, it’s a solid two hours – on a good day.  But as my spouse tells me often, once I get something into my head – I go all-in.

So I decided to make a go of it.

Next time: learning about agencies and submitting pictures.