Child Models: Japanese, Filipino, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Thai.
Child Modeling
Child modeling is not entirely same as modeling with adults. There are certain aspects of child modeling that parents aspiring to establish their children in the modeling world need to take into consideration.
A successful child model needs to have the following qualifications.
§ A child who appears younger than her age has the opportunity to feature in advertisements depicting younger roles. Handling really young children is a difficulty for ad makers, and the younger looking child models have the advantage of the maturity to understand the directions given to them.
§ The child needs to possess a charming personality; they must be sociable and comfortable around strangers.
§ Not only ad-films, but photo modeling requires some acting. So a child with acting abilities or the skill to express emotions as per directions have a definite plus point. It is a good idea to provide them with formal training in singing, dancing and acting.
§ The child needs to enjoy the work and like what they are doing. If the modeling is what just the parent wants and the child does not yearn for it, then things may not work out. The child model needs to be focused and able to meet the demands of the work. This is possible only if the child itself is eager to do the modeling work.
§ The child needs to have someone readily available to take them to castings and assignments.
§ They need to have flexible schedules at school, or the permission to be absent from the school occasionally to take up assignments. Hence, the school authorities need to be supportive and accommodating. Also, the child will need to be able to handle the pressure of academics and maintain acceptable grades along with the modeling work.
§ The parents need to understand that they should not throw instructions at the child during a shoot unless specifically asked to do so. This hinders the shoot and also might interfere with the desired outcome.
Opportunities for child modeling are scarce, the requirement for child models is limited. Not many agencies are willing to represent children, and even if they do, they promote them as “talents” and not as models. This is simply because there is not much mainstream demand for child models and the child needs to be able to do more than just look nice in advertisements in order to get substantial work. Moreover, the child models are not paid as much as the adult models are. This should be borne in mind by the parents before their child embarks upon a career in modeling.
Children change very rapidly. They lose teeth or may get braces, or grow into a different size than the client desires. The agency handling the child needs to be updated about such sudden alterations.
A reputed professional photographer should be hired to provide a few good quality photos of the child. They must not be "glamour", "portrait" or "fashion" style. Local photographers and “Internet photographers” lack the competence to shoot them.
Finally, a word of caution. A parent should be alert and steer clear of agencies that sell fraudulent promises of acquiring a thriving career for the children by offering modeling classes, portfolios, and admittance to modeling conventions. These are no good and are only scams to make money out of credulous parents. The parents should only look for the guidance of only those agencies that are involved in booking children as models.
