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Hi. I'm Trudi Tapscott, and the best place to start modeling is close to home. I think
that local markets are incredibly great training grounds. The only advice I would give to be
somewhat cautious about that is there are also a lot of people trying to take advantage
of your dreams. So, you need to identify whether you actually have the potential to be a model
and the skill to be a model, and then it's something that you could actually do either
for fun or something that you could do to make money.
But don't let anybody take advantage of your dream and don't let anyone tell you. If it's
too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true. So, you have to be a little bit
cautious and there are sources to check out whether somebody is a good agent. You need
an agent, and the reason that you need an agent to work is because that's the person
that the clients are going to call.
So, if you want to work for the local department store or you want to do a fashion show in
the local mall or you want to do a charity event, they're going to call somebody who
has the outreach to get a lot of models or a lot of people. That's either a casting director
or an agent. Those are the people that they call, so they're going to call the local modeling
agency to get models.
The standards and the quality of work are different in the local market, so you have
to adjust. But most of the time if you're a young model who dreams of being a model
in New York City, you're going to be starting to learn how to take pictures, how to put
a portfolio together, what you need to do. Usually, in small markets, you have to do
a lot of things yourself.
So, you have to have what they call a model kit and you have to have all the things that
you might need: an extra pair of shoes, extra makeup, all the extra things. When you go
to a big market, you don't need to have any of that because it's all done for you. But
in the local market you kind of have to know a little bit about everything in order to
do your job.
You want to have a good agent who's going to be able to guide you in what you need to
do in that market for their clients. So, if you live in a small place in whatever state
you're in, you could live in a small town in California, you have a few options of bigger
cities you would go to. You want to work towards getting to Los Angeles or getting to San Francisco
so that you have an actual working market that you can learn about the job of modeling.
You get to a place where you have enough of a book and enough of a reputation that clients
actually like you and they want to book you, and you get started. I think the best thing
about local markets is that it's a great training, beginning ground if you find the right person
to work with who can actually guide you in the right direction.