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Original poster

Child Modelling - do you think its a good thing or bad?

83 replies

bosscatsroastingonanopenfire · 09/01/2006 15:07

I ask because this is a topic i had absolutely no opinion on until yesterday. I had dinner with a cousin who told me her son (2) had been registered with a modelling agency. He has had loads of work etc and they are all over the moon. To say they were slightly obsessed about it would be an understatement. I found that I just could not be enthusiastic about it and I felt really uncomfortable. They feed him low fat food so he won't put on weight he gets dragged round every thursday to castings. I couldn't help but think to myself "what on earth does this child get out of this?". I'm sure they thought my silence meant I was desperately jealous that my two haven't been snapped up but I honestly felt really sorry for my cousins child and wondered if this was really a healthy environment for him to be exposed to at such a young age.

What do you think?

OP posts:
Original poster
bosscatsroastingonanopenfire · 09/01/2006 16:25

cod I've been looking for you and even have a whole thread searching!

OP posts:
codthemod · 09/01/2006 16:26

i ofudn you first

was reading to ds3

mummytosteven · 09/01/2006 16:28

/hijack bosscat - not got your e-mail. you could try this address instead - [email protected]

Original poster
bosscatsroastingonanopenfire · 09/01/2006 16:28

will do

cod found you back

OP posts:
Rhubarb · 09/01/2006 16:31

Very nice Crunchie! However I think you'll find that mine are much more beautiful than yours! I simply couldn't put them onto an agencies books however as it wouldn't be fair to the other children. But let's just say that when people come across my kids they bend down and start kissing their feet! A tad embarrassing but what can you do when your kids are just so beautiful?

crunchie · 09/01/2006 16:41

I know it does take hours just to walk down the street tbh

marymay · 09/01/2006 17:10

my dd is nine and has been modelling since last year.she was asked to do a photo shoot for a leading retail magazine as a friend of a friend was working on it and thought she would be good for what they were looking for.she loved it .we were given some numbers of leading agencies in london and she has now joined one.if you asked me when she was two did i think child modelling was a good idea i would have more then likely said no .personally i think this applies lots of things dancing muisc lessons gym .you get some right pushy mums in these things.mums of children that do modelling are not all show biz types .

LIZS · 09/01/2006 17:11

Low fat food for a toddler is dreadful but wonder if it is better or worse than endless junk though, in the scheme of things. I think the worst of child modelling, and yes I'm sure if we are honest, we've all had a moment of thinking ours could be a teeny supermodel, is that they change so rapidly that one week they look proportioned cute and clear skinned and the next skinny/chubby, blotchy/spotty, teething or sick and there is little you can do about it. If it gets to the point where their, or their parents, self esteem, lifestyle and diet is based upon it then that could be damaging all round. There was one mum on the other thread who couldn't be bothered to trek out to the suburbs to see an agent, hardly the most committed of starts, but for a job she would.

marymay · 09/01/2006 17:18

sorry i should have said a child should be old enought to decide what he or she wants to do.{thats what i think}.

lanismum · 09/01/2006 17:36

crunchie-your girls are lovely, but you already know that dont you just wanted to say that not everyone whos kids model are pushy and obsessed with their kids looks, my dd is with bizzykidz andi def would not consider restricting her diet so she didnt put on weight, if i tried to take her choc buttons away there would be war! i know of 1 woman who has a little boy that models and he isnt allowed to play rough in case he gets scratched on the face, this is just far too over the top for my liking, some mums, me included, just let their kids be kids, if my dd gets a job, lovely, if not, who gives a shit, certainly not me i know my dd is lovely and thats all i care about.

crunchie · 09/01/2006 17:40

I once had to turn down a job as DD1 had just 'cut' DD2's hair

lanismum · 09/01/2006 17:41

aww, suppose they were just practising, hee hee

crunchie · 09/01/2006 17:44

I didn't notice until dd told me proudly There was a huge lump missing at the front and side Her previous photo (the year before this one) has slightly lopsided hair

hunkermunker · 09/01/2006 17:47

I don't think rancid little weasels should feel like they're failures at two, no. They should wait till they start school, at least!

Just skimmed the pages of Elisabeth Smith's agency briefly - for a supposed "top" agency, they've got some FLKs on there!

lanismum · 09/01/2006 17:54

pmsl at flks hahahahahaha

mykidsmum · 09/01/2006 17:55

Right here we go........
Now I have four kids, all of them do the occasional modelling job. I consider myself to be a decent parent and have made my decision with a great deal of thought involved. I would not in a million years traipse (sp?) my kids around from casting to casting in the hope of finding a job, I don't live in london so it wouldn't be possible anyway. I can honestly say hand on heart, my kids love having their picture taken, if I got the slightest inkling they didn't I really wouldn't make them, I have seen parents make their kids be photographed and believe me it isn't pretty.
As we don't live in London, it has given us a great oppurtunity to spend alot of time in the capital, yes I know we could do this without the modelling but tbh we probably wouldn't, or not that often anyway as we couldn't afford it.
I can understand why parents would be concerned about rejection,but I certainly don't put enough emphasis on it for my kids to see it as that big a deal pictures used or not. In fact rejection hasn't ever come into it, not once, my kids just like going to London on the train!!
From a financial point of view as I have posted elsewhere, our children's money goes into accounts for uni, we are in no position unfortunately to put money aside and thats with both me and dp working, believ me Cod with four kids i am not bone idle! This means that in the future my kids will have the oppurtunity to do whatever they want and be whatever they want to be, I'm sure modelling won't even come into it but for now it works for us.

mykidsmum · 09/01/2006 17:57

And as regards to diet, my kids do eat healthy but thats becuase i don't like them eating too much crap, and actually none of them are what i would call skinny, in fact my 5 year old twins still have toddler bellies.

crunchie · 09/01/2006 17:59

Mykidsmum - please don't feel you have to jusitfy yourself on this thread as well. Lots of people have kids who model happily and are normal 'wellbalanced' people. However, you must have seen it too, there are a LOT of mums who are exactly like bosscats cousin who are totally mental

You and some others on the other thread are probably totally normal BUT critisim on this thread isn't being leveled at you, it is at those mad mad women who feed their kids low fat food and won't let them play

mykidsmum · 09/01/2006 18:07

Thanks crunchie although I have to admit I'm not so much trying to justify myself, am happy with my decision, as to get others to see that not everyone fits the stereotype. Although I did meet a mum who is moving abroad and plans bringing her ds back for jobs, now that is crazy

Blu · 09/01/2006 18:08

I wouldn't do it with DS, don't think he would enjoy the constant clothes changing, hanging around, and I think that kids should be doing their own thing, naturally, not being encouraged into pose-worthy looks and activities.

BUT how should catalogues sell kids clothes? On dolls, or just on a hanger or lying flat? I would be happy to buy clothes un-modelled - like the way NEXT clothing is shown online.

Blu · 09/01/2006 18:12

Do agencies have health policies and ensure that, as far as they know, children are not being put on diets, or anything so awful?

I am sure that there are sensible parents who allow their kids to be used for a few shoots, and others who enter into the whole thing as if it was that apalling beauty-pageant thing that happens with small children in America. Shudder.

lanismum · 09/01/2006 18:14

i think most agencies insist on a letter from the childs gp to say they are in good general health and have no major conditions, though i know this wouldnt stop mums putting kids on mental diets

yackertyyack · 09/01/2006 18:16

Blu I agree ... Next (and also Mothercare) do model alot of their clothes on hangers/laid out etc but they still have the odd 'cutesy' photo of kids to tug at peoples heartstrings!

yackertyyack · 09/01/2006 18:18

Special diets is definately wrong, especially in someone so young - its when they are growing the most! plus....have you ever tried those weight watchers dinners???? they are discusting!!! Even when you 'need' to eat them!!!

LIZS · 09/01/2006 18:21

Have to say I do hate the cheap catalogues which superimpose a head on clothes. You see the same expression on several different outfits and it is obviously not their body in them - so why ? Prefer the shots of the clothes themselves like Debenhams online do.

Much of the advertising budget goes into in-store "mood shot" posters too, and then they never have the clothes/items in stock ! Ultimately the consumer pays for it .