When I first got an agent in New York, I slept on the owner’s sofabed at his apartment. This was the accommodations the agency provided for me. I’d also slept on my booker’s sofabed in Milan, so it wasn’t a huge surprise. When the agency owner hit on me one night, it wasn’t a huge surprise either. I shut him down and promptly moved. I was 24. The other model sleeping on the sofabed was 14. Unaccompanied in New York. Sleeping on her agent’s sofabed.

Parents, girls, be smart. The Model Alliance is fighting hard to raise awareness and to ramp up regulations that will protect models who are minors, but for now, the modeling world is still like the Wild West. A number of articles and posts in my Facebook newsfeed lately illustrate why teenage girls who are modeling need someone looking out for them, and it’s probably not going to be their agent or clients. The controversy regarding accusations against photographer Terry Richardson of sexual harassment of models gives you an idea of a worst-case scenario on set. Former child star model/actress Milla Jovovich got into the biz at 11, but said her mom was with her every step of the way. Wise woman. Even scarier are the dangers of the Internet and sites like Model Mayhem which render aspiring models vulnerable.

3 Missing Aspiring Models Linked to Model Mayhem

Here’s my advice for models under 18…

5 Places a Mom Should Go With Her Teenage Model

1. Any bookings or test shoots with photographers you don’t know and trust 100%.

2. Any important meetings with your agent (especially if held after dark, with alcohol involved!)

3. New York, Milan, Paris—really any big and/or foreign city where a model is sent to work/build her book

4. Any modeling trips where you will be traveling and staying overnight

5. Any model parties/places where modelizers (especially rich, older men) are lurking and eager to prey on your daughter!

Please note: Your job in chaperoning your young models is to keep them safe, not to meddle. Stay out of the photographer’s/client’s/stylists’ way, don’t gab on set and distract them, or worse give input on how you think they should shoot your daughter/style her hair/line her lips. However, when it comes to removing a lecherous man’s hand from your 16-year-old’s thigh, by all means go ballistic.

Don’t forget to enter the perfectly safe Modeling Mentor Model Search. If you are under 18, please have a parent or guardian submit your photos!

There are fashion shows and then there are Fashion Shows. If we’re talking about New York Fashion Week shows, which are wrapping up on Thursday, then there are FASHION SHOWS too.

Karoline Kurkova

You are unlikely to walk out of your house in Middle America, into the local modeling agency, and onto a runway in New York Fashion Week a month later (though I’m sure it has happened once or twice!). You may, however, walk into your agency in Kansas City or Denver, and then onto the catwalk in a department store the following week. From there, if your career blossoms and you hit a bigger market, you may work your way into a less competitive Fashion Week—like Miami’s, or if you’re in Europe, Dusseldorf‘s rather than Milan’s.

The castings for the big Fashion Weeks—New York, Paris, Milan—are extremely competitive. Often there is a posse of top editorial girls who monopolize the runways, but up-and-coming designers do book less expensive (sometimes free) new faces. The best way to work your way into the elite runway posse is:

1. Work on your walk. If you’re with an agency in New York, they likely have access to one of the well known runway coaches. Or have an experienced model mentor you and show you how it’s done (see the Model Alliance mentoring program). If you are in East Podunk, disregard any fancy turns and moves a modeling school may teach you. You simply need to know how to walk and pivot—and look like Karolina Kurkova while doing it.

2. Get experience. Do any fashion shows you can get.

3. Seek representation with a reputable agency.

4. Be lucky.

The story of how I first landed on a New York Fashion Week runway is in my book. It was all about LUCK. (I’ll let you know when you’ll be able to read that story!)

New York Fashion Week 1994

Stay tuned for a belly dancing performance that blows away any fashion show. It’s not every day Unmata comes to Connecticut!

Also, a lot of people have been asking about “agencies” that charge their talent to be a part of their “agency.” Look for a post on Modeling Scams coming soon.

Sign up for my free monthly Modeling Newsletter!

Sara Ziff

I can vouch for the fact that agents and clients often stiff models financially; the accountants at my agencies often made models grovel for their paychecks, sometimes stalling for weeks, and shrugging their shoulders when a client went bankrupt and a job went unpaid. I can’t say I have experience with providing a stiffy in return for work, though. No one ever asked me for more than a comp card. Considering a Model Alliance survey found that 28% of models were pressured to have sex with someone at work, I’m wondering if I should feel offended. No photographer ever hit on me, not even in Milan.

A New York agency owner once hit on me, though—at his apartment where I was staying, not at work—does that count? He had the worst line in history, “C’mon, it will be really quick.” I laughed at him and retired to the pullout couch in the living room, shared with a 14-year-old from Canada (I was 24). I left the agency and the apartment, which does beg the question, Did he hit on her the next night? To a teenage girl, the situation may not have seemed so laughable. She wouldn’t have had a Model Alliance to turn to for help back then.

Kudos, Sara.

Models/former models: Please take this 1-minute survey:

Sexual Harassment Survey