AMA: Former model in late 30s often called beautiful by others

[ImImmortalNowBabyDoll]

I'm a former model and now in my late 30s but still regularly described by strangers and friends alike as "beautiful." I've noticed that people who haven't happened to fall neatly into Western beauty standards are often curious about people who do, so AMA.

And if you just want to come and tell me that I'm conceited and probably not as beautiful as I think I am, that's OK too- we all need a hobby.

Person/Subject: Someone who poses for artists or displays clothing (fashion model).
Merriam-Webster

No-one put you in charge of what a "proper model" is. Someone who makes a good living posing for artists and photographers is a model.

You were sneery in your OP. It's not conducive to a mature discussion.

well try telling that to the multimillion pound fashion and beauty industry and I think they may have a different opinion

You're entitled to your opinion but I don't think I was sneery. I correctly predicted that someone would be along to question my "beauty" credentials, and come she did.

Who haven't happened to fall etc etc

get a hobby, etc

I think their opinion would be there's more than one kind of model. Just like some actors are in multi-million £ films, some are in soaps, some are working as waitresses trying to get jobs, some set up theatre companies and tour their own one woman show or join a company, some just appear at their local amateur theatre - they are all actors and they all need to be good at what they do.

Yes, who haven't happened to. It's pure luck if your face meets the arbitrary criteria set.

Nobody is questioning your ‘beauty’ credentials. I don’t even know what you look like ffs.
However, it’s likely that if you was of the typical model aesthetic that you would have most likely been scouted or working for brands rather than shooting nude for amateur photographers. It does come across as big headed when you’re saying stuff like you’re a former model and fit the typical western beauty standards etc. You probably are beautiful, but probably do not have a typical model look. You can be beautiful and not have a typical model look. But to portray yourself as a former model and claim you are beautiful and was a model because of that is quite frankly ridiculous when the sites you used meant that my 90 year old grandma could literally create an account on there and be an art nude ‘model’. The sites are free for anyone to join. Sorry but I doubt you ‘made it’ as a model just from your looks!

Sorry but your 90 year old Grandma probably would get a handful of TFP shoots from someone interested in learning to photograph the elderly.

Most women that start don't make any money because you have to fit a specific sort of look. I know several who just weren't considered pretty enough to keep booking shoots.

I was and made a living from it, never wanted to take it further and carried on working a "proper job" part time. You've successfully fully derailed the thread now.

Thanks to those who asked proper questions and I hope my answers were sufficient. Happy to answer any more about how life had been for someone considered by people to be beautiful rather than what the definition or a "real model" is.

Perhaps @Flyingintotheunknown could start an AMA about that.

Oh, and for those asking about the type of work I did, I forgot that I did one for internal use by a shampoo company. I had to read scripts about haircare and the importance of shampoo for a series of videos that I believe they used in training, the specifications were someone with a pretty face and nice hair. I think that was the only time I did video work, apart from recently when I was in a film, but that was unpaid and just for fun.

Very interesting thread op. I’d never even thought about models for nude art or pictures on bottles. Ignore people saying you’re not a model. You were paid to have photos taken of you. That’s a model. I wish I could see what you look like but I’m sure you’re very beautiful.

I don't think I ever did before I did it, but I think most photos used are probably just from "amateur" models and photographers, even on clothes websites nowadays a lot are just friends and family of the owners. I got asked to do an ad for the local NHS service and sit in a garden looking wistful to advertise garden was like a club for people with MH problems- I was "scouted" for that on a bus.

Another time, someone hired my whole family to play a boardgame and be photographed to promote his self-published board game.

These types of small scale things aren't hiring professional models from agencies.

I’m sure my 90 year old grandma would only do TFP yes…. Because it’s a well known fact that most ‘photographers’ on there seem to cherry pick who they want to shoot with… and that is usually young women under 30 who are willing to pose wearing very little.

My point is they are still sites that literally anyone can sign up to no matter how they look or how little experience they have. Just your every day average joe! It’s not some elite community where you can only join if you are an insane beauty.

Just because you made money from meeting up with hobbyist photographers who you found on such sites that just accept anyone who wants to join, doesn’t make you a model.

In the main though OP you were not paid to 'model' but to be photographed

In the everyday use of the word 'model' I think most of us would think of fashion shoot, catwalk, magazine work etc., maybe your thread title should have been about your beauty and how that affected your life, rather than modelling which seems to have been a small part

There is no doubt that physical attractiveness can have some bearing on how one's life pans out!

The definition of a model is someone who poses for artists or photographers, which is what I did. I did go in some magazines and adverts. But I didn't realise people were going to have such strong opinions about what kind of modelling "counts". I suppose that my modelling was in the context of a lovely community where everyone wanted to have fun and support each other rather than rank them on order of "properness". Some photographers I worked with were quite famous at what they did, but very few photographers only photograph at big, organised shoots with agency models. Many of them do that for their "day job" and the other days they want to hone their craft and take pictures for their own portfolios and projects.

I doubt there were any ‘famous’ photographers there. Maybe well known within that community yes but not famous. It’s like when these hobbyist photographers say “well I’ve shot with all the top models”. What they really mean is they shot with all the well known models within that amateur community. They hardly shot with the Hadid sisters lol!

The big photographers in the business who shoot ad campaigns are not interested in shooting amateur models from those sites. They do not want their names to be associated with all the seediness that is associated with them. And they aren’t my words by the way, they are what I’ve heard coming from those photographers.

Is it possible that a lot of what you have done you chose to do in order to feel validated and prove to yourself that you are “beautiful”? It seems like it is something that is very important to you.

wow the bunfight on here LOL

I don't know why you're so obsessed with this. You seem to have a massive chip on your shoulder about it. Models have posed for artists for centuries before agencies existed. I doubt The Girl with a Pearl Earring was agency signed. She was just beautiful by the standards of her time and Vermeer decided he wanted to capture that. Every ancient greek statue, every Botticelli, every Titian was posed for by a beautiful woman who made a living posing without an agency in sight.

Yeah it went weird.

Not really, I did it for fun and because when I was asked to do it it sounded fun. I feel like I've made sure I'm not dependent on being beautiful to exist and I'm ok with aging out of that phase on my life. I've had some great experiences that I don't think I'd have had without it.

(The "proper model" argument has touched a bit of a nerve though because I feel like it's really disrespectful to many talented and hardworking photographers and models who I have worked alongside and never felt the need to involve agencies.)

I don’t have a chip on my shoulder. However, you seem to have a chip on your

Yes people have posed nude for art classes for many years. I haven’t ever met a life model who seems to think they got into that line of work because they are so beautiful lol. I rarely see a life model with such a big ego and they aren’t necessarily risking their own safety when posing in an art classes full of students.
I think it’s very risky to sign up to some site and meet up with strangers off the internet who call themselves photographers and have bought themselves a camera and take naked pictures of you, all so you can prove to yourself you’re a ‘model’.

What were the experiences? How was it fun?

I suppose what I am trying to work out is how other people thinking you are attractive on the outside actually translates to feeling good for the person on the inside. Isn’t it all just enjoying the feeling of being objectified?