Or 10, or however many it takes for fat to fill in those fine lines that have developed on your face, because eating is so much more fun than Botox. I know I’ve said this before (this post has been regenerated a few times), but it’s always nice to have an excuse to bag the New Year’s diet resolution and enjoy more holiday feasting…

January 1 is here and you’re stressing about the weight you’ve just vowed to lose, right? Well, stop. Turns out the 5 to 10 pounds many of us gained between Thanksgiving and New Year’s may be the greatest gift we could give ourselves. This pertains especially to women over 35, like me and Heidi Klum.

In a recent Self interview, Klum revealed this tip for aging gracefully: “The ultimate beauty secret for a woman getting older is, Don’t be too thin! It is always better to have a little meat on your bones.”

My best friend Sophie Patitz, another German top model who is both stunning and sensible, gave me the same advice a few years ago. At the time I was thrilled to have reached my old modeling fighting weight, only to be advised by her that my thin face made me look older.

After the initial sting, I launched into a hearty meal and have been grateful ever since. Heidi concurs, “When you are just muscle, you end up being gaunt in the face, and that makes you look older by 5 or 10 years.”

Which is why I’ve vowed to gain weight.

If you don’t believe it, check out these before and after celebrity pics:

Could it be Gwyneth Paltrow looks better now than in 2000? A touch of chipmunk, not chisel, suits her better.

Getty Images

On the flipside…

How can it be that Angelina aged five to ten years in a little over a year? She lost weight. A bit of post-baby fat is a good thing.

Getty Images

Calista Flockhart seemed borderline anorexic a decade ago. While still svelte, she weighs more than a feather now and has a fuller face. As a result, it hardly looks like these two photos span 11 years.

Getty Images

Ten years ago, Nicole Kidman went through a thin phase. Now she’s looking more robust and, like Flockhart, possibly younger, not ten years older. Without the extra pounds, we would be talking gaunt or we wouldn’t be talking at all-Hollywood may have written her off as too old.

Getty Images

Demi Moore must think thinner makes her look closer to her hubby’s age. Not so. A year ago she looked not a day over 40. With a slimmer, more severe look 12 months later, she could pass for her actual age of 48.

Getty Images

Happy New Year ladies. Go forth and gorge!

Don’t forget to “like” your favorite Model of the Month by Jan. 15 (make sure you are signed into Facebook, so the “like” button appears). That’s when I will tally votes for the People’s Choice Award. A panel of industry experts also will pick their Modeling Mentor Model of the Year this month!

Fur, fur, fur—it was everywhere at Fashion Week. Is the dream of a fur-free Fashion Week an impossible one?

Fashion Week Fur Frenzy, Fall 2014

The Pros & Cons of Posing in Fur

Models have always been on both sides of the fur debate. There are those who pose in fur and walk the runways donning dead (often tortured) animals—either because they don’t have an issue with it or they need the money (or will take any modeling gig they can get). Then there are the model activists who have refused to wear fur and campaigned for organizations like PETA. Their ubiquitous ads of supermodels, like Naomi Campbell and Tatjana Patitz, modeling in the buff, declaring “I’d rather go naked than wear fur,” certainly made an impact. But it’s still not enough.

Supermodels pose in the buff for PETA

PETA and International Animal Rescue

There’s been a lot of press about abuse of young models lately, but animals are the most helpless fashion victims of all. As PETA describes in their ads: “Animals killed for their fur are electrocuted, drowned, beaten, and often skinned alive.” My close friend, former model Sophie Patitz (Tatjana’s sister), now works for International Animal Rescue and confirms that this is not sensationalism. There is nothing humane about the way animals are turned into fur coats.

Think twice about modeling fur and buying fur.

Comment and let us know what you think about this issue.

My son just recorded a re-mix of “Funky Town” (oh the roller skating memories!). Stayed tuned for recording studio tips for singers and voice-over actors!

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I always had trouble with booking out. You may pound pavement for years as a model and only make enough money to live on pasta and ketchup  (that’s what Sophie Patitz and I ate most of the time in Paris). During the slow ascent out of blue-collar model status, I never considered booking out. I would have shot a catalog on Christmas day if my agency asked me to. Then the jobs started flowing and I could afford to book out, but I rarely did. Maybe it was a strong work ethic, or maybe it was the recognition that one day I would age out of modeling, so I ought to work every day until I couldn’t anymore.

My advice: If you are a new face with an agency, don’t book out if you can help it. You have to show them you have the drive and determination to do anything it takes to make it. However, once you have a strong book and some steady clients, take a break when you need it.

I’m looking at about 50 unpacked boxes, but I’m on the sofa with my feet up. Maybe I’ve finally learned to relax. Or maybe it’s the fact that no one will pay me $200/hour to unpack them.

Supermodels on the Effort of Modeling:

Kate Moss in 1990, by Corinne Day

“I’d go on the train to castings, changing from my school uniform on the train. I carried on like that for a few years, getting jobs in bits and pieces.” —Kate Moss

“[On days I'm not working], I have to hit the gym. I have beauty appointments. I have to work toward my next job. . . just like an athlete.” —Linda Evangelista

“A girl who is interested in becoming a model must first accept the fact that she is the product. She must be ready to deal with a lot of rejection.” —Karolina Kurkova

The countdown to January Model of the Month is on: Enter the Modeling Mentor Model Search!

These savvy modeling friends of mine each spent 10 to 15 years on the international modeling circuit. Their advice is invaluable to anyone considering modeling (or the moms of aspiring models, who need to know what wisdom to impart before sending their precious daughters—or sons—off into the wild world of fashion!)

From Ricky Haas:

1. HAVE A WELL-KNOWN, RESPECTED AGENCY BEHIND YOU!

2. Don’t let an “agent” tell you you need surgery. If you need some kind of surgery, you shouldn’t be modeling! I was told at age 18 by my first booker that I should “consider an eye lift.” My left eyelid is lower then my right and sometimes in pictures you can see it, BUT, PLEASE did I, at 18, need an eye lift…aaaaaahhhhh NO!

(Editor’s note: Ricky and I modeled, lived, and traveled together for years and I never noticed a flawed eyelid! Most faces are asymmetrical. Are Heidi Klum’s eyes identical? No. Is she gorgeous and successful? Yes!)

3. Do not get involved with “seedy” rich men who like to hang around models. They will try to buy you meals and drinks but there is a reason why they are spending their money on you! Ladies…they want you in the sack, end of story. You might be starving in Paris but the meals are not worth it. I did NOT learn the hard way but saw it all the time. This kind of thing occurs in cities like Paris and Milan A LOT!

Ricky and Jill borrowing a Porsche from an older rich man (OK, once in a while you meet a generous gentleman who will loan you things with no strings attached!)

4. Make friends with the right model crowd. Be smart. You don’t do drugs…don’t start hanging out with models who do. You don’t starve yourself or vomit after meals…don’t hang out with those who do. I was the luckiest girl in the world; I found a group of ladies that had great morals, self pride, and were just downright FUN to be with and that is who I stuck with traveling the world. They are, 20 years later, my dearest friends.

5. Don’t take the modeling world too seriously. It is a short-term business—out with the old, in with the new! Make the money you can, be as successful as you can be. Take care of yourself (go to the gym, eat right, take care of your skin, don’t party too much [Editor's Note: If anyone thinks they saw Ricky and me in those bier gartens in Munich, those were two girls who looked like us; we were at home with cucumbers on our eyelids]). This industry can be yours as long as you want it to be (look at Audi Martel, for example) or it can be a short-term business to branch you into something else. It’s a wonderful way to make great money to buy your first house, car, travel the world and see the great sites. Don’t take it too seriously. Enjoy and take it for what it is worth. It won’t last forever.

 

From Carter Gigandet:

1. Make sure you are with a legit agency that actually has paid working models, not one that makes money through seminars, workshops, etc.

2. Be willing to change your look, cut your hair, etc.

Five years later, with a short hairdo, Carter found more work and her future husband!

1. If you haven’t made enough money to support yourself by the end of year one, then go to college and get a real job.

Sophie Patitz making some $$$ with a Clairol campaign

Two More From Me:

1. With digital cameras, there’s no excuse, when you’re agency hunting, for submitting anything less than the very best photos you can take. Natural outdoor light is usually best, and it’s most flattering early in the morning or before sunset. Have someone shoot 100 pictures of you, if that’s what it takes. Do a headshot (no sunglasses on, no branches growing out of your head, no eyesores in the background like garbage cans, cars, etc.!) with very minimal makeup (you can wear some but just make it look like you aren’t wearing any). And do a full-length wearing something that shows your figure (but not anything risque!).

2. Eventually you will have to spend money to make money. You’ll need professional photos, which you’ll get by “testing” with photographers (a “test” is a shoot that is specifically for you to build your book; it’s not a job. If the photographer is building his book too, a test may be free, but the best test photographers usually charge and often you get what you pay for. Wait until you have an agency—they’ll set up tests for you. If you pay for photos to help get you an agency just be aware that your plan may not work and then you won’t recoup the money spent. That being said, I met more than a few bookers and scouts who did not have an eye for seeing how a girl with amateur photos might look when shot by a professional (that girl was me. I was rejected by all the New York agents at 17, and then had no problem getting an agency there 7 years later when my age made me less desirable but I had a book of photos and tear sheets from Europe).

Read everything under “Modeling” in “Articles” on my site and you will be well prepared to venture into this exciting career!

Send your questions to  dearjill@modelingmentor.com or post them on my Facebook Page

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#ModelProblems: 4 AM call-time and 16-hour days shooting a music video

I know my model friends have some epic war stories to share (among models, Milan goes by the moniker “Viet-Milan,” btw), so I encouraged them to air their grievances. They promptly started lobbing their complaints like grenades onto my FB page. These just may blow your image of the model life to smithereens:

“Standing in a hollow tree being bitten by bugs, so the photographer could get the ‘perfect’ shot. I was itching for weeks. Another one was when I had to rock climb for a photo shoot for sportswear and I didn’t know how to rock climb. There I was in Ibiza, hanging over volcanic rock and the very angry ocean. I cried myself to sleep after the first day of FREE CLIMBING. Makes me laugh now, but I couldn’t move for weeks. Now I love rock climbing and that client gave me tons of work after that.” —Leslie Wayne

“Shooting fake fur coats in Dubai when it was 120 degrees… Dancing for a shoot in the middle Leopold Strasse in Munich, while it was snowing in December (10pm at night—for that evening shot) in a “metal” blazer, hot pants and six inch heels (those German’s know their style!). What really hurt was when the freezing metal on the jacket hit my skin, it was beyond painful!”  —Ricky Haas

“One of my personal favorites was the German client in Phoenix who had us do swimwear in the morning when it was freezing and coats in the afternoon when it was burning up… 3 days in a row!”  —Carter Gigandet

Umm, anyone notice a trend here… Germans?

#ModelProblems: German client asking me to march in a box of water for 2 hours

“My worst moment (week rather) was in the middle of nowhere by the Red Sea with clients who refused to speak English the entire week, where I was nearly killed on two occasions. Once while shooting in the sea and they all screamed and ran back to the beach and I looked down and a spiny poisonous fish (a stonefish, I think) was right next to my foot (thanks for telling me!). The other when they made me lean against an old building that fell down right behind me, a brick skimming my ear. The highlight of the trip was when they asked me to go topless (hmmm, no) and this was a Muslim country. The result of me saying no was a lot of shouting on their part. There was also a dead camel baking in the sun next to my hut and food poisoning… Lecherous photographers: there was the very famous one, who refused to work with me after I refused his advances….I could keep going…Re. clients…the Japanese worked us 14 hours straight, but they paid well, but to me they were the harshest, the Germans a close 2nd. Why do you think I moved to NY!?”  —Sophie Patitz

“Oh those Japanese were just downright cruel with the length of time they worked us and the enormous amount of BAD clothes we had to shoot!” —Ricky Haas

#ModelProblems: A tree house for lodging, Wonder bread and undercooked boiled chicken for lunch, a lecherous client, AND I never got paid for the trip. (Supposedly the production company went bankrupt. Clients going bankrupt are always the models’ problem!)

“How’s this for a tweet? The New York Times representing models as shallow vapid robots without real human troubles. #REALmodelproblem: I’m sure there are no models out there worried about health care, how they’re going to pay their rent, and/or send money back to their poor family in…(fill in the country). Nope, just worried about their lipstick and their sushi. Sorry, Jill, yes, I have worn a bikini in Vermont in the snow in February and this article sucks as much at that did.” —Audi Martel

Whoa, I had to jump in here: I feel for the girls trying to support their poor families back home, but for the ones just trying to support themselves: if they aren’t making enough to afford rent or healthcare, they need to consider a career change. For the relatively easy, privileged, high-profile job they do, models should consider it a fair trade to be the brunt of some jokes. And in this case the models are fully participating in the joke. Plus, the writer started out with some model truths that the general public rarely think about: “The hours are grueling. Job security is nil. And while it’s flattering to be paid for your looks, the average gig won’t make you rich.”

Sophie Patitz

We met in Munich 20 years ago, and even then, as a teen, she dreamed of a career helping animals. The money she made modeling (her rate reached $5,000 a day) enabled her to pay for college and take a job that is more about making a difference than making money. Watch this brief BBC report to find out more about International Animal Rescue, where Sophie works. Share the link to this page to raise awareness and help raise funds!

Find out more at internationalanimalrescue.org

Tune in on Monday to hear the talent that model Audi Martel has been keeping from the world!

1.  Cindy Crawford. OK, she didn’t graduate from college. Cindy left during her freshman year to pursue modeling. But, any high school valedictorian who earned a scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern deserves a spot on this list.

Cindy Crawford

2.Lily Cole. Last year, she graduated at the top of her class at Cambridge, where she studied art history. She got a “double first” (a rare honor in England) despite a double workload of classes and modeling assignments.

3. Christy Turlington. The supermodel graduated cum laude from NYU in 1999, with a B.A. in Comparative Religion and Eastern Philosophy. Now she is at Columbia pursuing a Masters in Public Health.

Christy Turlington

4. Tyra Banks. The model-turned-TV host/producer graduated from Harvard’s Executive Education Owner/President Manager Program in February, giving her Ivy League alumnus status.

Tyra Banks at Harvard

5. Brooke Shields. The Calvin Klein kid who modeled practically since the day she was born took a break from her acting career to attend Princeton in the 80s. She majored in French Literature.

Brooke Shields

6. Iman. The Somali supermodel did more than break down racial barriers in fashion. She studied political science at the University of Nairobi and speaks five languages.

Iman

7. Sasha Pivovarova. The Russian beauty studied art at the St. Petersburg Art Institute before becoming a model.

Sasha Pivovarova and her art

8. Sara Ziff. The model who co-directed the documentary “Picture Me” and recently launched The Model Alliance graduated magna cum laude from Columbia, with a degree in political science.

Sara Ziff at Columbia

9. Sophie Patitz. The younger sister of supermodel Tatjana, Sophie had a stellar modeling career in the 90s but always dreamed of saving animals. She graduated from University of London’s Royal Holloway College with a degree in zoology last year and now works for International Animal Rescue.

Sophie Patitz (Pollmann) at Royal Holloway

10. Jill Johnson. A little known model who embarked on her career after graduating with honors from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Jill has a B.A. in English Literature and now writes for some little known blog. (She would not consider herself a “Beautiful Brain”—more like a haggard mom with a sieve-like memory—but she was struggling to fill the #10 spot.)

Jill, post-graduation pre-mom (i.e. a lifetime ago)

January 1 is here and you’re stressing about the weight you’ve just vowed to lose, right? Well, stop. Turns out the 5 to 10 pounds many of us gained between Thanksgiving and New Year’s may be the greatest gift we could give ourselves. This pertains especially to women over 35, like me and Heidi Klum.

In a recent Self interview, Klum revealed this tip for aging gracefully: “The ultimate beauty secret for a woman getting older is, Don’t be too thin! It is always better to have a little meat on your bones.”

My best friend Sophie Patitz, another German top model who is both stunning and sensible, gave me the same advice a few years ago. At the time I was thrilled to have reached my old modeling fighting weight, only to be advised by her that my thin face made me look older.

After the initial sting, I launched into a hearty meal and have been grateful ever since. Heidi concurs, “When you are just muscle, you end up being gaunt in the face, and that makes you look older by 5 or 10 years.”

Which is why I’ve vowed to gain weight.

If you don’t believe it, check out these before and after celebrity pics:

Calista Flockhart seemed borderline anorexic a decade ago. While still svelte, she weighs more than a feather now and has a fuller face. As a result, it hardly looks like these two photos span 11 years.

Ten years ago, Nicole Kidman went through a thin phase. Now she’s looking more robust and, like Flockhart, possibly younger, not ten years older. Without the extra pounds, we would be talking gaunt or we wouldn’t be talking at all-Hollywood may have written her off as too old.

Getty Images

Could it be Gwyneth Paltrow looks better now than in 2000? A touch of chipmunk, not chisel, suits her better.

Getty Images

On the flipside…

How can it be that Angelina aged five to ten years in a little over a year? She lost weight. A bit of post-baby fat is a good thing.

Getty Images

Demi Moore must think thinner makes her look closer to her hubby’s age. Not so. A year ago she looked not a day over 40. With a slimmer, more severe look 12 months later, she could pass for her actual age of 48.

Getty Images

Happy New Year ladies. Go forth and gorge!

Jill Johnson is a former model who loves to eat. She founded Tear Sheet magazine and now works as a freelance writer. Her site, modelingmentor.com, offers insider advice and a sneak peek at her book about life in the world of fashion.