4 easy things to remember as a newbie model

I recently posted this on www.modelmayhem.com for the newbie models.

You gotta do it. And you gotta seek out opportunities and work. if you want to be in a magazine, you have to do your research, work with photographers who are as driven as you and remember it isn't ONLY about the money, most likely you wont become rich off of modeling but you can get tear sheets and gain work and some consistant paychecks and there is a world beyond the Internet as well that you should consider. Modeling isn't just hits and clicks and trust me, it can be intriguing but to model and seriously book jobs you need a ton of ambition to do it alone. It is possible but you have to be cautious and creative, and smart about it.

1. Ask yourself why you want to model. Seriously. Why-do-you-want-to-model. What is it that makes you curious and interested in modeling? Is it the fame? The exposure, the hobbie of it, what do you want out of it. Why should an agent work with you. What can you offer?

2. Try to think as if you are the client. Imagine Nike http://www.nike.com/index.jhtml or any brand casting for models for their next ad campaign or commercial. They are not most likely looking on line. They are going through an agency and it makes sense. Why the hassle, why wonder if the girl is going to show up? Why wonder if the girl knows how to pose. Why waste time? So to get these types of jobs you need an agent. Because the client is going to go to the agent 99% of the time. Unless you know how to skip the middle man ( for that see number 4)

3. How do you get an agent. Well, it comes down to photos and persistance. You might get turned down 15 times. Does that mean you should give up and only stick to hits and clicks on the Internet? No way! You should think deeper about yourself as a model and approach agencies in the areas that they lack. For example, I got into two major NYC commercial print agencies because I knew I wasn't fashion and that I had good body parts. This past weekend I shot for a Global magazine and I wouldn't have booked that if I only thought of the narrow minds of the industry. Modeling isn't just FASHION.

4. Skipping the middle man. Flip through the last www.Glamour.com, or Jane magazine www.janemag.com/ and go to the directory, the editorials directory in the front of the magazine. See the Photo editor, or the photo researcher?...the Photo director?....Well Put together a compcard. ( showing your best images, and ONLY your best!) and mail the magazine editor, director, researcher yourself with a letter saying you are interested in their up coming editorials and to consider you. I got my first few tear sheets this way This may work better with smaller magazines, or weekly magazines, since they need more material more often and they might not be as unlikely to give someone like you...a newbie a chance. take care and keep trying!

Cheers!

isobella jade http://isobellajade.blogspot.com/

The Race Inside all of Us.

To have it my way, I self published my book -my modeling memoir through http://www.booksurge.com/ and there are others'you could consider like http://www.lulu.com/ and http://www.iuniverse.com/ but I felt best with http://www.booksurge.com/. Like a pair of shoes, it is your comfort level and your style that will help you decide.
Self publishing has been a dream come true. And the marketing has really just begun. Now the work isn't over, - and just having a binded book doesn't mean you can sit on your ass. Everyday I am hustling, writing press kits, and the promotion is the fun part but also it can be a challenge if you don't use your own personal creative style of self promotion. You can read some book self-publishing tips at http://www.ezinearticles.com/ -click here for the article I wrote on "How to get Your Book in Magazines and Newspapers".

Just like being a petite model, the self publishing world means you have to always be trying and positive.

Also I am not positive about having a Publicist, not only the price but maybe it is my fear of failure by relying on someone to do all the work for you, that leads me to be nervous-how do I really know they are caring like I do about my book and self. I would have to be proven. I like the thought of being able to blame myself no matter what the results are. So I have learned how to self serve, and self publishing isn't easy for someone who doesn't like to toot their own horn.

So today, I had a nice little relaxing Sunday, -I went to the Belmont Park races http://www.nyrr.com/ today. In my hot little maroon sweater dress from forever21, I was smoking! But the horses were making the fire and when Unbridled Belle won during the 9th race, I screamed my head off! Todd Pletcher has some magic touch. I also was very impressed with Now a Victor in race 4. The underdog pulling through :)!! When they round the curve, I am reminded of my old runner self. In my heels today and everyday and, I feel the pain in my lower back and I feel for those horses tonight too, Sore, beat, and needing a massage.

Model tip of the weekend: Always carry a tampon with you. Seriously! I know from experience the results if you don't! :)

Sincerely,

isobella jade

Isobella doesn't like Fake Breasts

So I think it is sad that Heidi Montag has to talk about her implants with Us magazine in this weeks issue. About how "Boys teased her." It is sad because she let these "teasers" win.

Today I posed with a global leadership magazine for a feature, the job involved a photo of my breasts and they are A cups, maybe bitty B's but if I can work with global magazine I think that means more than getting fake breasts and trying too hard to be airbrush perfect. Granted there was airbrush on my breasts and there is photoshop available but adjusting our natural selves should not be something women do. It is a very sad thing. If you have fake ones you really need the boost then ok, I hope you are very happy now. But I am against the fake boob. I just am. I don't like the thought of some gellish thing inside of my body, and I don't think there is a good excuse, besides a medical reason- to get implants...if I lost one of my breasts due to disease or misfortune, I might get one. But then again, I think women should start using their brains more. I consider myself attractive, but also smart and the smart part means more to me.

I wish it would mean more to girls on the cover of Usmagazine.

http://www.usmagazine.com/

How to Use Your Body in a Commercial Way

Your body is sexy! But it also can be used for body part modeling.
I live on www.google.com but you really don't see enough about this type of modeling.
When I started modeling I was only using my body for my ego. Defining myself by hits and clicks I got on my free modeling websites on websites like www.onemodelplace.com but after about a year of this, I kept the free site but started using my body in more pay-ful ways!

Such as....

Shoe modeling:
If you have a size six foot. You can shoe model and make up to 350 a day, just to try on shoes during show shoes. I have worked with some of the largest names in the shoe industry including Brown shoe, Eos.Originals, and White Mountain, and these lead to an ad campaign with Marshalls as well.

Hand modeling: Only recently. As in this past year have I got after this type of modeling and it is really paying$$$ off so far. It started when I modeled for Distraction Jewelry and I had to touch the jewelry and I had to get a manicure. Hand modeling pays a lot for hardly any work. Some hand models you might mean, might complain about holding a pose, but that is what modeling is silly. (suushh) So if you ever see the ads modeling nail products, rings, and even food magazines like Bon Appetit and brands like Verizon need hand models. Someone has to hold those phones! So get some photos taken of your hands, with clear and also a color of polish, and hold a phone, put on some rings, or wear a watch or grab a banana and smile. Hand modeling is a great way to model without having to wear mascara or even put your face on :)

Body Double: Movies, films, magazines, ad campaigns, editorials, magazines, they all need body doubles. This is from the backside...to the legs, to hair, to the stomach and usually your face isn't shown.

Hair modeling:
Many beauty conventions and companies need hair models, if you are willing to change the color or style and cut of your hair, these shows and jobs do pay decent $.

Right now I am interested in jewelry and body doubling body part work.

Being comfortable with your body can mean more than just posting your photo on a website and waiting for a comment for compliment....you can work with modeling agencies without the height requirement as a body parts model. It could be your in....especially if you are only, barely,hardly almost 5'4" in height.

Goodluck!

isobella

Last evening...

Last nightI stopped by the latest issue party for YRB Magazine. Not wicked crowded but not bad at all to chill out. I actually like going out when the scene isn't as loud and sweaty.

So you have the photos but you want a Compcard?

Here is a list of some good, decent priced compcard printing places:

http://www.compcardexpress.com/
http://www.buycompcards.com/
http://www.compcardprinter.com/
http://www.zedcardprinters.com/

I haven't used all of these but I think they should be good for you to get a decent first batch of cards to model to agents! :)
Doing TFP is great and making a few bucks can't hurt but if you want to get an agent you need a COMPCARD! :)

Modeling at the Back of the Pack

One chapter of my book is called At the Back of the Pack of Giraffes Forever. It makes me think about how much the internet has effected my pursuits. helped and also taught me about the business. Teenagers more than ever I think are using the Internet as not just a tool but a way of life. Technology has changed every business and the entertainment business is the same inside the agency door but until you get into the agency door it is a great tool to learn, and start pursuing, but the Internet means also you are not protected, becareful what you post, who you meet, and it will take a few tumbles and mistakes before you find that the Internet can sting! And what you write, post and show stays...even long after you have changed or moved on or bettered yourself.

I hardly use www.onemodeplace.com for photoshoots anymore, but many photos of myself from years ago are still founds on the net. The World Wide Web, keeps and doesn't forget. So use it, but be aware.

Yes you can gain work through the Internet, I have and it shows there are legit jobs and people out there who do pay and are professional. But I still have a compcard and a portfolio book of images, (if you dont have huge funds for printing try http://www.adorama.com/)...and although it feels good to skip the middle man, to get to the clients, jobs like Conde Nast, you need a serious agency and agent. You need people on your side, and it is very hard to get into the door so the Internet can help a ton to get started, to get some photos, to learn about promoting and marketing yourself through website like www.modelmayhem.com and www.craigslist.com but also you can't rely on one source or person. If you want to succeed at something or strive...you have to use many tools to get there.

Right now I am working on shooting commercial print photos outside, - I want to shoot by the brooklyn bridge before the heat turns to freezing cold!

How to get an agent

It took me five years to finally get with the agency I wanted. In the mean time I worked with smaller commercial print agencies and only recently have I gotten the proper pictures that I had needed so many years before. The hits and clicks touching your website or modeling page feel great, but in all honesty it is quality photographs, you have to have good pictures, pictures that show your diversity. You have to work with people who are driven and ambitious and focused and who want to get places too. I would say focus on your strengths, and get them photographed, your eyes, your smile, your hands, your stomach, and have them shot in commercial ways, close ups, and in lifestyle atmospheres.

Then research agencies in your town and commercial print agencies or grab a Ross reports or call magazines which you want to be in and ask what agencies they work with and research photographers who have goals as big as yours.

Photoshop is nice, but also take some natural shots of you being you, and work with someone who you trust and can relax with....sweating and making a sexy face only looks good for so long!
So if you want an agent, and if you want to be with an agency. No Matter your Size, you can...just focus on what you got. I am honestly really only 5'1" but most days I wear high heels so I am 5'6" or 5'4" pr 5'5"...but you know the truth!!!!!!!!!!!! so If I can You can!

Currently I am working on getting some fitness photos, to show my curves in a way I can then submit to a fitness magazine or a health and beauty and spa magazine.

use what you got.....and don't wait. Do it now!

If you are who I think you are!

Riding on the train, up to New York Institute of Technology, my college, which I haven't been inside of in 3 years, the women across from me looks familar. I think of why? I imagine her in a scene. Then it hits me! She is the mother in the movie Meet the Parents, I still don't know her name though. My stop is coming up and I get up and grab the pole. Then I lok over at her again.
I tap her wrist softly before I leave the train " stand clear of the closing doors!!!!" I whisper " If you are who I think you are...then...your good!" and she puts her hand to her chest and says to the person next to her..."awe thats sweet!"

I get off and think of it as a sign!

So I do the interview and it goes well but I need to learn to make my interviews a bit shorter, once I start talking I go on and on and on, I even read the editors an excerpt from my book. I hadn't read out loud in a long time, it was weird and I stuttered a few times.

I went to a Technology web event next. And I learned about www.blogtalkradio.com

I finally get home, it's 9pm and her name is Blythe Danner!

Newbies to the modeling world!

Hi new models out there... girls, and guys! I just wanted to give you the heads up that anything is possible. All you need is to strive, strive, strive, I am most likely the tiniest model in NYC and I have found ways to get into the agency doors, to get print work and work with national ad campaigns and beat the odds. You might be new and not sure how to enter a business or try. I would say...work with people who have goals as big as yours or bigger. Ask a lot of questions, and focus on your strengths not your weaknesses. Say you have a big nose...well don't like that bother you... focus on your long beautiful hair or edgy short bob, or you great hands, legs, or eyes. And remember being sexy isn't the only form of modeling out there. Hand modeling pays up to 150-$3000 a day depending on the magazine or ad campaign. The best moment in my modeling career was when I finally met a photographer who wasn't just shooting me for the fun of it, but was shooting me to allow me to just be myself and he listened to what I was really after, and it lead to my first tear sheet in Women's World magazine... Don't give up, but also don't expect to get famous or your tear sheets over night, just model because you know you are good at it, and have a backup plan, have a lot of goals in life, not just one....and you will attack each one!

Cheers!

isobella jade

How does she model at not even being a full 5’foot 2 inches tall?

Although she recently found out her real height which she has ignored for years is 5’1” and ¾ . She pouted about that, but she doesn’t mind wearing high heels every day just to prove her lied height on her modeling comp-card of 5 foot 4 inches. Even though the average American woman is just 5’3,” Isobella is under average.

(((((((( Today I worked with Fuji TV, we filmed in Time Square)))))))))))))

The School of Nude Modeling to the Acceptance of an Agent

Unlike most models I wasn’t scouted and I am not tall- I started modeling by just Googling the word “model” in 2001 when I was in-between semesters at college. From 2001-2006 when I grew up in front of the camera, during a turbulent time when I was 19-23 years old. I wrote this book to share the awareness for the good, the bad, the ugly -and the nudity that I experienced through ways of the Internet and how with a hungry persistence even the underdog can make her dream come true with one click of her heels.

I just recently started working with a great commercial print modeling agency. It feels like it took forever since I have mailed this agency a lot in the past. Alot longer than most other Giraffe models...but I got this opportunity by using what I have...and not dwelling on what I don't.

Then and Now

It took me 5 years and I am finally workin with some great modeling agents, the phone doesn't ring every single day but it rings more than it ever did and I am creating a new compcard within the next couple weeks and anxious! Modeling for my ego, back then...inspired my book Almost 5'4" and today as I promote it and try to gain media leads I find myself thankful that I have seen both sides of the business. The freelancers and working with agencies. The Amatuer and the Professional worlds.
NO matter your trade, craft, interest and inspiration...don't give up. Make time for it. Pursue it. Do your homework and never hold back from flaunting yourself when flaunting is due. It's not easy to succeed in breaking the standard rules,or bend them, and sneeking in the door or find your own way in...but if you stay persistance it WILL work. Just think inside and outside of the box and imagine the perspectives of those you are pursuing. If you want to start a business, even if that business is yourself you have to look at YOU from the outside in, the inside out and see how you are representing you.
Take care and have a wonderful weekend!
isobella jade

Amazon!

911 only gives us more hope to try and pursue and tell the ones we love we do each day! I hope your day was inspiring.
Cheers!
isobella

----------------------------

Amazon Bookstore's Blog

« Go to the full Amazon Bookstore Blog

Homeless Model Finds Room of One's Own (And Writes Novel) in Soho Apple Store
9:58 AM PDT, September 7, 2007, updated at 11:39 AM PDT, September 7, 2007
While my headline may lack the panache of the classic 1983 New York Post headline, Headless Body Found in Topless Bar, I did come across this story in America's "oldest continuously published daily newspaper" while I was in upstate New York over the Labor Day weekend.
Over the course of four months, pint-sized former part-time nude model Isobella Jade worked on her book for an hour a day on one of the display laptops at the Soho Apple Store (while also seeking out modeling gigs on Craigslist), e-mailing her work to her Yahoo Mail account. Ms. Jade says: "Writing it there was crazy because it was a big, loud place with a lot of people. Some writers want to be in a quieter place, but I'm very fast-paced, so my book is very fast-paced. It's gritty because I am, and writing it at the Apple Store made it more alive."
The fruits of her labor are now captured in her self-published memoir, Almost 5' 4": Confessions of an Unconventional Model, which one Amazon customer reviewer calls "scandalous, rabble-rousing writing at its best."
--BTP

Pray Tonight

Six years ago on September 11th in 2001, I had just recently moved to NYC ( chapter one of my book) and didn't really understand what 911 meant. I knew the danger, the deaths, the broke soul of a city I had just met, the obvious from the faces I saw near by. But only recently do I really feel the emotion of New York City and that day. Since now I feel NYC is my home, and I have a love/ hate relationship with New York every single day. I ironically live downtown now. Only a walk away from the sight, and may we all pray tonight for the energies in us to stay full of life while we have it, and to remember life is too short and unexpected and lets pray that we will always let freedom ring in our broken hearts from the day we lost too many precious people to ignorance. May we keep our faith and help one another and strive to be all we are capable of being unlike many of those who lost their chance too soon.

----------------------isobella jade--------------------

Self serving

As much as I love researching and hustling and pursuing the jobs and goals I have, it is true...you need help along the way. When I research brands and companies and magazines I want to model for, I also update my compcard and mail them out to more modeling agencies, or the agents I already work with, just to update them and keep myself in the loop. It took me a while to finally work with the brands I work with today and it is very inspiring to chase more each day and inspire people to try the same.

Also the world is small and on any given day I will run into someone I know on the street, train or coffee stand line, or of couse at the Apple Store. So always be true to yourself and true to others.

Crushin Me at Farm Aid at Randall's Island

Well tonight was amazing, I went to a concert for Farm Aid, it was a dream come true to see Dave Matthews! I will never forget it!

When Dave sang Crush, I melted. I am so lucky that my love got us tickets! And Willie Rocked! The Counting Crows were amazing! Dave Matthews is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you love the pictures, yup our seats were pretty amazing in the press box! Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp did an amazing job at a wonderful cause. I am from Upstate( Syracuse, New York) so of course I love a fresh grown juicy Apple, and my mama's garden when I was young, and now living in the big apple I love home grown! Cheers!- isobella

Hustling for Press Pays UPUPUP

Well it isn't easy being your own publicist, and fruit stand... especially writing constant press releases and researching editors, magazines, newspapers, agents, and all at once trying to promote yourself and stay positive along the way. Its seems that writing this book and marketing it and publishing it has become a story in itself. But I am doing this promoting and hustling of my book for the underdogs, and to inspire others to take a chance and to go after their goals. Media Bistro did a write up (enclosed), I like that they still write about the little hustler now and then. It means alot!

At the Apple Store on September 7th 6:43pm

I slide in and actually feel like I am in a new zone, a calm feeling runs up and down my spine, my feet are planted and my eyes are not leaving,both hands on the keyboard, no one is messing up my motion....click click...and I am collected and  checking my email at last!

How to Get in a Magazine

Here are some tips for other models on how to get in a magazine

1. look at magazines you like and want to be in.
2. Or research and contact the photographers who have published work in the magazines you want to be in.
3. email the photographer your ideas and pitch your personality.
4. Or send yourphotos to the photo editor directly at the magazine.
5. Research on internet sites like Craigslist.com and search the words "editorial" or ' magazine" sometimes you have to be careful of the scams but using the Internet sites like Google you can research editor names and address's for mailing your photos at least.

Same thing for agencies, mail your photos and don't give up!



I gained my first tearsheets in Women's World Magazine, Stuff Magazine and Mass Appeal, Accent Magazine and meetings with Latina Magazine ..through research and using sites like Craigslist to scout out legit modeling work for editrials....not from an agent but through approaching photographers or mailing the magazines my photo myself and researching on the Internet.

My newspaper interview in the NYPOST!

This is amazing! here is the link to the article that Larry Getlen wrote in the New York Post Pulse section on Sunday the 2nd of September!

New York Post Feature! 3/4th of a page! wow!