In order to write the book “The Winner is alone”, the main theme of which is the cult of celebrities, I had to do some interesting research into the routine of those women who inhabit the collective imagination: photographer’s models. However different they may be, what follows is an invariable pattern of behavior among them:
A] Before going to bed they use several creams to clean the pores and keep the skin hydrated – from an early age making the organism dependent on foreign elements. They wake up, drink a cup of black coffee without any sugar, and some fruit with fibers – so that the food that they ingest during the rest of the day passes quickly through the intestines. They climb on the scales three to four times a day and become depressed by each excessive gram denounced by the needle.
B] They are all aware that they will soon be upstaged by new faces and new tendencies, and they need urgently to show that their talent goes beyond the catwalks. They are constantly pleading with their agents to arrange a test for them so that they can show that they are capable of working as actresses – which is their big dream.
C] Unlike what the legend claims, they pay for their expenses – travel, hotel, and all those salads. They are invited by fashion designers’ assistants to do what they call casting, to select those who will be picked to face the catwalk or pose for a photo session. At that moment they are in front of people who are invariably ill-humored and use the little power they have to pour out their daily frustrations and never say a nice or encouraging word: “horrible” is the comment most commonly heard.
D] Their parents are proud of the daughter that has begun so well, and regret having ever said they were against that career – after all, she is earning money and helping the family. Their boyfriends have fits of jealousy, but control themselves because it’s good for the ego to be with a fashion model. Their girlfriends envy them secretly (or openly).
E] They go to all the parties they are invited to, and behave as if they were far more important than they actually are, which is a symptom of insecurity. They always have a glass of champagne in their hand, but this is just part of the image that they want to send out. They know that alcohol contains elements that can affect their weight, so their favorite drink is mineral water (still – although the gas does not affect the weight, it does have immediate consequences for the contour of the stomach).
G] They sleep badly due to the pills. They hear stories about anorexia – the most common disease in the milieu, a kind of nervous disturbance caused by obsession with weight and appearance which eventually educates the organism and rejects any type of food. They say that this won’t happen to them. But they never notice when the first symptoms appear.
H] They go directly from childhood to the world of luxury and glamour without passing through adolescence and youth. When asked about their plans for the future, they always have the answer on the tip of their tongue: “I want to go to university and study philosophy. I’m just doing this to be able to pay for my studies”. They know that this isn’t true. They can’t afford to attend school: there’s always a test in the morning, a photo session in the afternoon, a party which they have to attend to be seen, admired and desired.
People think they lead a fairytale life. And they want to believe this. Until some more curious writer decides not to give up, and questions a bit further. After a great deal of hesitating, they eventually say: “I was born to be an actress. So I am capable of pretending that this miserable life is the most glamorous profession in the world”.
The measure of love
“I have always wanted to know if I was able to love like you do,” said the disciple of a Hindu master.
“There is nothing beyond love,” answered the master. “It’s love that keeps the world going round and the stars hanging in the sky.”
“I know all that. But how can I know if my love is great enough?”
“Try to find out if you abandon yourself to love or if you flee from your emotions. But don’t ask questions like that because love is neither great nor small. You can’t measure a feeling like you measure a road: if you act like that you will see only your reflection, like the moon in a lake, but you won’t be following your path.”
A models life is really different from what we think and your post has confirmed that they are also humans with lot of insecurity and fear!!!
Been observing your web logs for 7 weeks now and i should say i am starting to enjoy your post. How do i subscribe to your blog?
I am all for exposing the truth of the fashion industry, but again when those who have not experienced for what it is, and make up their own biased judgments based on the hype of the media, which only portays models as victims to drugs, and weight issues.. The truth isn’t this black and white. Only the examples chosen to show the public are these which isn’t representative to all the normal open adventuresome wise young women that work within this career.
I have been modeling for ten years. I came from a small religious farming town and modeling gave me the gift to travel the world, meet people from all the different worlds, to new ideas and ways of being. I am lucky for all that the fashion industry has given me. I am now working as a full time student, modeling which was once my fulltime job in my young twenties, now is my parttime job that helps support my dreams in getting educated. The models who do continue in becoming actresses usually do so, because it is the next natural step with their self-awareness of doing photoshoots, runways, and commercials, that speaking roles naturally occur next…
It can be a fickle and crazy industry and it isn’t always easy. It is true that the girls don’t have much protection, and may be susceptible to hard times but please don’t victimize these brave vibrant women. The biggest problem for most models is not drugs or weight issues, but loneliness.
Bravo to you :)
I must admit I find myself saddened by this post. I am a highly successful fashion model. I have appeared in some of the most read magazines in the world and walked the catwalk in many fashion weeks. I love my job. I eat what I like in moderation and excercise everyday. I cannot remember the last time I weighed myself. I do not want to be an actress, admittedly some models do but i would say the majority do not. In fact most of the girls I have worked with fit their successful careers around university studies.
I am intrigued to know what pills you speak of and would like to say have never had to pay for my own expenses. I truly love your writing with all my heart but am dissappointed to see that you, like so many others before you, seem to believe that you have uncovered what poor tortured souls us models really are. If anything it is you who have upheld stereo types and failed to discover just how many girls have derived more joy from this job than you can imagine.
In the years I have spent doing this I have discovered so many things, travelled the world over and had the means to pursue my passions.
I love this read. Somehow, our perception of beauty has been distorted and I just hope that one day we will open our eyes to the beauty that is in everyone.
In terms of models – It is fantastic to write a book about popular people. I have been thinking about this idea a lot recently – I feel sorry for celebrities, models, etc – They look like prisoners to me. It is very sad – really. I only experienced a glimpse of what it might be like to be a model – when one of my yoga teachers offered me to do photo shoots for her brand of clothing.She is a little bit known in the yoga world – western commercial yoga world. At the beginning I thought that it is a good idea. And I had mixed feelings about it. I admire some models, famous people and I am irritated with them at the same time (they are pretending to be above us all). So I decided to put it to a test and have a photo shoot. The first photo session was a familiar experience – I didn´t have to look at the cameras just do the asanas (which I didn´t enjoy doing because it was too cold). I had to look relaxed and happy. After the session finished everyone started admiring my looks and my fake bleached hair. Well I understood that it wasn´t really for me – something was missing in the process. After that session my teacher offered another one only next time I had to just stand and look at the cameras. And again I agreed to come (I guess I had to finalize some things). I didn´t enjoy that day at all and as much some people think – not all women (men as well) like to be in the spot of close attention (in spite of their looks). I think that POP people have very little control over their looks and general being. I don´t think I could ever be one. For some reason we are supposed to be hunting for fame and glamor. But do we really want it? If we get it (even a little glimpse). Can we actually deal with it. I understood that I love my anonymity and I love that most people on this planet don´t know who I am (or what the media says about me). I am so lucky!
The measure of love es un hermoso parrafo.
Recuerdo que hace un tiempo estaba hablando con un Tito acerca de un amigo mi al que yo amo mucho. Yo estaba diciendole que estaba enamorada, y titio me contesto que eso no era amor y solo se iria en un tiempo y jamas lo recordaria.
Esa vez pense acerca de lo que el amor es, y como se medira, cuando es que sabes que estas enamorado o qeu sientes amor.
Pero no puede resonderme a mi misma y ahora que pienso al respecto me doy cuanta que en mi caso yo siento no hay forma de saberlo, solo lo sabes, y no hay forma de medirlo cada quien tiene su forma de amar y sentirlo. no hay una forma general.
A model looks always glamorous and beautiful to us but after reading ‘a model’s routine’,it seems a pretty tough job. One has to be alert in the run by ristricting oneself inorder to maintain the stardom. Was a good reading and eye opener.
I wonder if the people who admire models think about all these things. From a tender age you go from casting to casting, some times weeks with only rejections, you can learn to read it in their eyes. You pretend that its ok, that one day you will become famous, like those you admire. Lie to your self. Rather than admitting that you failed. A dream is a dream non the less.
Sometimes, it makes you so sick, eventhough rationally you know that you are beautiful, or maybe its just enough people tell you so, you go from moment to moment, mirror to mirror lost in wondering if I have the look. Actually, I think the word beautiful has already lost its meaning with me. Its always you look beautiful, gorgeous, amazing, stunning, incredible, at first you think wow, then with time when your back in the real world and you are told these same words, you think they are cheap and dirty and end up devaluing those who really care about you. The man of my dreams told me that “tonight was beautiful” my first instinct was he’s just saying that because he feels he has to.
You become paranoid that people don’t like you enough or don’ like you instantly. And you give up contact with those who really care about you, convincing yourself that you are too important for them. With time friends drift away. and you wonder why.
Once upon a time I believed in love, but now I wonder if men ask you out because they want to sleep with you, a date is a venture capital, investing for future gain.
I don’t want to be an investment, a stick-thin coat hanger, a face, a model.
I want to be me, but I’ve already lost me.
I was naive in my pursuit of becoming a model.
I shot with photographers who used the word “beautiful” to inflate my ego, which clouded my judgment of what felt good and bad while we shot.
I fell prey to schemes of paying money to get my face seen.
My insecurity was covered by the fact that I was being photographed and admired.
Admiration combined with the pursuit of a disillusioned dream can make a model do naughty things.
There was a photo shoot where i started in a full Tuxedo, 16-hours later, i was naked with the photographer trying to sleep with me or give me oral sex. When someone is naive they don’t ask questions, they go with the flow, because they do not want to make a potential “important” person angry. People with different visions, that make it sound grandeur and appealing, until i was actually in front of the camera. One was “applying” make-up and was literally slapping my body to make it look like black smudges. He told me that Hairspray is a “a great tool to make the skin glisten”, as he proceeded to put it on my face and my closed eyes.
It did not feel good. But fear kept me silent. That felt worse.
There are real photographers, and there are photographers who know prey on the ambition of young people and take advantage of that. Not a new story, just repeating it.
Quite a routine! …a model one.
Dear Paulo,
I just gave you 5 star for this amazing work of yours!!!
It’s actually a great topic to “meet up” world with, and I absolutely agree with just every of your thought! :-)
As our Serbian saying goes: If MIND leaves you with your life and you don’t know what to do, do “sell” yourself own by becoming a model, pop singer, actress, or a porn star; for that life is of NO use either, NO story, as the story is OVER! :-)
Is not so easy,to reset us in the very Vulnerabily position of the Child in us,and Love as children do naturally, like befor they were hurted!But is not imposible,and it needs our Free Will to Try it again and to Risk!The Risks are allways heared in Heaven!
Love,
Mirela(the woman in elevator)
Still, it would be the coolest thing to be the cover girl of Vogue Magazine! Women have always done painful things to be beautiful, and to show it off. As an industry…I’m more upset about how those designers exploit many of those, way too young models, how they often get them addicted to drugs, and probably use them in any way they can. Luckily the industry themselves has started to demand a certain age and weight for the girls. Things go forward.
The secret revelation of glamour Paulo
Tres bien*
Love is measured by its fruits
Let`s go beyond the limits*
haw ! haw !!! paulo !!
did u not notice anything good and admirable also !! ( other than the babes of course ) biased are we !! hmmm…….
love
aditya
came across a ‘good one’ from rumi
“abandon your cleverness and gain beweilderment !!” rumi
ha but the moon travels through the night sky :)
I once did a Tarot reading for a woman who was leaving her husband. She wanted a “better life.” She was certain that she was destined for something greater than he could ever offer. She was going to “be somebody” one day, and she was not going to let the commitment she had made to this simple man stop her from attaining the greatness for which she was destined. After discussing the matter at length, we agreed upon an approach to the reading. We would ask to see what she stood to loose, as well as what she stood to gain from the move she was about to make.
She was delighted when a card turned up, at the forefront of which was this glamorous princess, all smiles, verily dancing on air, and dressed in the most luxurious attire. “That must be me!” she said. “That is the me I am to become.” I agreed – it was obvious that the figure in the foreground represented what she stood to gain by leaving this man who was nothing but a poor, manual laborer, scarcely educated, and not at all interested in what went on in places like Hollywood or Las Vegas.
“But wait a minute,” I said, “There is more to the card than that. Do you see those two tiny figures there?” I asked, pointing to a miniature farm scene painted in the background of the card. It was an old couple, man and wife, farmers, standing side by side and hoeing in the garden. All around them was a scene of tranquility: sheep in the field, cattle grazing near the barn, some chickens pecking in the dirt near the front door of a modest but very inviting little house. In the shade of a tree, a dog slumbered. Ducks floated merrily on the surface of a clear blue pond. In comparison to the richness of this scene – all the happiness and bounty that it seemed to promise – the luxuriously clad woman in the foreground looked like a cardboard cutout, stiff and lifeless. She was obviously wealthier, by far, than these two who were tending their garden side-by-side, and, as her glossy red lips implied, she was certainly “happy,” or so it would appear – she was smiling anyway, though we all know that smiles can be faked. But she was also alone. There was no one at her side, not even any surrounding objects to imply that her environment was one of comparative richness and bounty. She was wholly self-centered. She was completely out of place, utterly alone, all caught up in her own beauty and charm and grace.
Certainly, we should all pursue our dreams; we must pursue our dreams, and we must let nothing hold us back from them. And yet sometimes happiness, the greatest happiness, the deep rooted happiness that makes life worth living, comes in simple packages. It is not that we are famous, or glamorous, or surrounded by luxuries, pampered and adored by throngs of admirers. It is a hoe in your hand and someone whom you deeply admire and love standing by your side; it is planting tiny seeds with your bare hands and watching them sprout and grow in to thriving green plants, producing a bounty that cannot be purchased at any price on Hollywood Boulevard. Because the bounty is not just in the fruit – it is in the act, in planting life’s tiny seeds and in sharing that endeavor with others whom you admire and who love you for who you are, not because of what you look like on some magazine cover, or because your name is always in the headlines.
Dear Paulo,
I had some doubts before, and you just showed that I was right about models myths. But, as in every type of job, I think there are those who are really born for such, and handle very well the whole situation. Great names, that last.As Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzegovina, Carla Bruni. I think the mistake is that the girls not really fit for the kind of job do not give up when noticing they cany be in the top with normal methods, so start compromises ,as pills , tough diets, that destroys their health. The worst is they are presented as model, to be imitated, and many girls women become obsessed by diet, all sort of aesthetic operations, jeopardizing their health. I had a very bad experience, although I never wished to be a model. My father used to laugh and make fun on my “weight”, I already told I was a very normal girl, not fat not skeleton. But, as teenager, the words touched me, and I decided to diet,eating almost nothing.After short time, my father send me with mom to doctor, who not talked to me, only with mom. I was sent in hospital, they said I was anorexic .For the record, I was 15 years old, and 58 kilos, 1,65 m. The nurses followed me in bathroom ,everywhere,and watching carefully if I was eating the desert ,the whole. I say all that was craziness.So,when I hear those stories ,I laugh a while, but than I start thinking, because the thing can be very serious.Hope nobody will have any kind of problems, Love
Alexandra
I like to think that if I can watch the sun straight in the eye,as we can not look at God;
I watch the sunlight that reflects the moon,like Mary reflects the divine light;
then I look at the stars and talking to my guardian angel that I feel every day at my side;and I put my head on your shoulder, Mary, to comfort my soul…
and I look my way is drawing on the sands of time;
and I expect that you will guide me, Lord, love to help.
and to love more and more . Sido
Thanks for your beautiful comment Savita.
wow! what an experience! so sorry to hear.