Agent – Model or Agent – Mom Relations Rule Book

No one gives you a guide book on how to act with your agent, so faux-pas are common—and can kill your career if you aren’t careful! Here are a few tips on What Not to Do when communicating with your agent.

Emailing Your Agent

1. DO NOT write unnecessarily lengthy e-mails. Your agent—if he or she is any good—is very busy. Keep e-mails as brief as possible. A few sentences at the most. No chitchat. Your agent is not your buddy. If you want to do any longwinded venting or bragging, text a friend.

Calling Your Agent

2. DO NOT call your agent all the time. Again, they are crazy busy! Most communication can happen via email (brief ones!). If you have an important issue that you must discuss via phone, ok, but this shouldn’t happen often. (I talk to my kids’ talent manager once a month at most and their modeling agent hardly ever—even bookings are conveyed and confirmed via email.) If your agent happens to prefer speaking by phone, that’s fine, but let them take the lead as far as the frequency and duration of those calls.

Booking Out

3. DO NOT forget to book out. If your agency is submitting you on jobs because they think you are available, it’s a hassle for everyone and poor reflection on them when it turns out you are not. After you book a vacation or schedule an appointment you cannot miss, email your agency with your book-out dates. (But if you book out all the time, that also will irk your agent!)

Lauren Hutton’s famous gap-toothed smile

Career Guidance

4. DO NOT skip consulting with your agent when making important career decisions. Without monopolizing their time (I know, it’s a fine balance), keep your agent in the loop and respect their advice. Certainly there is a place for standing your ground (Lauren Hutton kept telling Eileen Ford she would fix the gap in her front teeth but never did; it became her signature feature), but don’t recklessly undermine your relationship with your agent.

Brooke Shields (age 14 in this photo) was managed by her infamously over-earnest mom, Teri Shields

Model Parents

5. DO NOT be over-eager. This one is especially directed at parents. Be supportive; do not be over-earnest or pushy. Unfortunately we stagemoms are up against Gypsy stereotypes. One whiff of Mama Rose behavior and agents are likely to drop Junior rather than deal with you. So many parents sabotage their kid’s career, often unknowingly, with their own misconduct. You don’t want to be that mom. The fact is that you have to lean toward passive to overcompensate for the pre-conceived notions people have about stagemoms. In my experience, few live up to those notions, but the ones with successful kids are definitely on the ball, informed, and at-the-ready when their kids have to be at a casting or booking. (Teri Shields, Brooke’s mom, was generally all of these things, despite a severe drinking problem, but she also was pushy enough that she insisted on managing her kid’s career herself. Most agents wouldn’t tolerate such an opinionated and emotionally erratic mom. Read more about that “model-mom” relationship in Brooke’s book: There Was a Little Girl: The Real Story of my Mother and Me. I found it fascinating and well-written by the Princeton grad and ultra successful model-turned-actress.)

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Christa Akouette, shot by Keston Duke

Congrats, Christa! 

Height: 5’8″    Age: 19   Dress: 2    

Based in New York, NY

Seeking Representation 

Christa is not only stunning, she is also smart. She let me know she is reading everything on my blog and “learning so much.” So many people want instant success without putting in any effort. Knowledge is power! Arm yourself with it and go after your dreams!

Your submissions are still eligible for future months and you can submit photos as often as you like! Enter the Modeling Mentor Model Search

Agents, e-mail me if you are interested in Christa!

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Top Model Devon Aoki

Top Ten Tips for Aspiring Models

5 Warning Signs You Are Being Scammed by an Agency

Modeling Schools and Scouting Conventions—Scams or Not?

The Best Cities for Models

Top Commercial Agencies in New York

Modeling Tip: What’s the Difference Between an Agent and a Manager?

My Favorite Modeling Articles

If you are seeking advice for kids, reference these links also:

Child Models

Child Actors

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Texas is an enormous state, but agent and scout Page Parkes has got it covered. With agencies in Dallas and Houston, a Modeling and Acting Center in Houston, and now new Modeling and Acting Centers in Dallas and Austin, Page is not likely to miss a single Texas rose blooming in her home state and ready to be picked, prepped, and sent off to New York, L.A., Paris or Milan. She’s equally adept at spotting guys with potential, as gals (eg. Angelina Jolie, Alexis Bledel). Channing Tatum, People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive” in 2012, owes his start to Page.

Page Parkes’ Discovery, Channing Tatum

To see how Page Parkes finds her diamonds in the rough and shines them up all nice for New York, watch “Scouted” on E!

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Due to a huge delay at the GW Bridge (add 1 hour to aforementioned drive time), we arrived late—huge no, no. I imagined several mini models waiting, parents glaring at me as we entered the studio. Fortunately T’s shot was a single. And fortunately she made up for her tardiness with a stellar performance having an animated conversation on a toy cell phone with her hair in two cute little buns (modeling perk: new hairstyle ideas). The photographer—relaxed, nice, phew—got the shot so quickly that he added another shot, which involved T singing into a pink microphone. She requested “Call Me Maybe” as her boogie-down song and had a great time jamming with the kid wrangler. I was shuffled away from the set—interfering former-model mom—but I could watch it all on a computer screen. Oh, the joys of the modern age of digital photography. All we saw back in the day were a couple of Polaroids.

Speaking of, when will T see her work? Possibly February on toy packaging, but maybe never as the shots could be for the European market. (That’s more info than a model usually gets, btw.) Barely three, T does not seem too preoccupied with issues of instant gratification. She was thrilled to learn her other shots will be in Toys-R-Us newspaper inserts before Halloween. (I think maybe just the word “Halloween” is what made her beam, but whatever works.)

I took the Tappan Zee Bridge on the way back. WAY better. T napped so she felt like she was home in the blink of an eye, which I hope diffuses any suspicions she has that Mom is nuts to do this.

A precious tidbit of info I learned at the studio made the travel worth it: A kid came the day before, for one shot (so we’re talking $100), from Killington, Vermont! OMG, there are people much crazier than I am. So for those of you who are wondering, Can my kid model if we live three states away from New York? The answer is YES!

How to Be a Model Tip: Some bookings have “brings”—things the client has requested that you bring along. The agency told me to bring a mix of pink, mint green, and lavender leggings and shirts. I found an assortment, none without a stain. The client didn’t use anything I brought, which may have been due to the state of T’s hand-me-down wardrobe, but in my experience is typical. Since I also was kindly informed not to buy anything, I knew the “brings” were just for back-up.

I’m going to add “How to Be a Model” Tips to upcoming blogs (where appropriate).

While not totally appropriate in a kid model blog post, have you seen the shirtless Abercrombie & Fitch male models’ cover of Carly Rae Jepson’s “Call Me Maybe”? If this blog bored you, I promise this hot display of six-packs in the video below will not. Oh, the fond memories conjured by images of the Duomo and hunky guys…

Abercrombie & Fitch Models in Milan

What would it be like to date one of these guys? Read my latest Male Model blog post!

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