Tuesday, September 28, 2010

it’s one thing to be short; and that it’s another to be short-sighted.

How high heels, accepting reality, hard work and looking in the mirror helped to make me a model.


Maybe one day I'll meet Kate Moss, I bet she'd be a lot taller than me.  But being pint-size hasn't meants I can work with great brands and magazines, go to castings at Hearst, Conde Nast and stand in line with the lank giraffe models.  I stand next to them all the time. My height is obvious. Or lack of. But normally at my castings I ask myself "what are THEY doing here?"  Because it is a casting typically for my body parts.
I've found a way into the modeling industry through parts modeling, and over the years I have worked with great brands and magazines, you may have seen my foot in Macy's on a huge wall near the Easy Spirit shoes? You may have seen my hands in Bon Appetit magazine, or my legs in the Victoria's Secret catalog?

I put to use what I do have. But putting to use what I do have involves putting away the fantasy.  The thought of being on the runway, working with fashion modeling agencies, being taken care of in this industry. I could work as a model once I accepted and noticed the truths of the short girl. Print modeling is the area to pursue, it is the area of modeling where every day looking people and attractive people with spunk and personality model lifestyle products. It welcomes all types because the print modeling world works off the products and services that all types of people use and buy.  As great as this sounds print modeling is being a lone solider most of the time. It is working mostly non-exclusive with agencies and often being more of your own agent than anyone. It involves showing up to castings because you have the will to try, and want to, not because someone is your cheerleader and preparing you for the casting or job. It is making your own comp cards, marketing them to the right agencies, growing your portfolio, seeking out your own modeling work, gaining tearsheets, hunting for them, ripping them out of magazines carefully, letting each lead to the next. It is a process of years. It is like starting a little business of yourself and assets. But if you market yourself properly with professional photos, the right marketing mindset, and the ambition and availability to try, you can get yourself some work as a model. I don't care how tall you are. Height is not everything in the modeling world. But you have to see it that way and act upon it that way. 

The more you notice about yourself, your assets, the better. I talk about this in my new book Short Stuff: on the job with an x-small model, and I talk about the hustle, the day in the life on the job working with brands and magazines, going to castings, and putting yourself and your assets out there in the right ways, to the right people, and opportunities.

I think noticing yourself is the most important thing you can do for yourself.  In any pursuit, passion or career, or life. So I might not be super tall, but I have great skin, so I might not be able to get in the door with Ford, Elite, etc, but there are MANY print agencies out there, actually many more print agencies than fashion agencies, it's just that the media only talks about fashion.

You gotta notice yourself and work with what you've got!  I wear heels, I love heels, but I have become over the years more comfortable with my own height, or.... my natural height in riding boots which only gives me about an inch or 2 more. As an author I promote the short chicks and I have become more comfortable with saying, Yes I am short. I am most happy in heels, but I know I am the shortest one in the room, usually even with heels on!

I wear super high heels at events, and even in meetings, running around, sometimes at certain castings, but I am not being hired for my height. I am being hired for my other assets, my energy, my smile, my hands, my body, even my legs, and having a nice even skin tone has helped.

For my modeling photos I have learned to stretch my body, to arch, to  naturally and in a pretty way  work my limbs to appear longer in photos, and here are tips on that, but I don't market myself as anything that I am not. I don't try to be a fashion model, I am not one. Fashion is an industry based on measurement, but I still have used my legs in modeling, alot! Especially with shoe modeling my legs are often and always in the shot, working the show, the angle, my legs to look a bit longer for photography and marketing sake for the product campaign, etc.  

I also have looked in the mirror alot, I still do, and study my body. How it moves, what it looks like what I move a certain way angle, I will sometimes stand naked infront of the mirror or in a bikini and just watch my body, because for castings for body and parts modeling, it is good to know my body, ex: how my arm changes when I move it a certain way. I like to see the mirror's perspective because THAT is the camera's perspective.

Sure having a nice body and skin tone has been helpful but skin is not everything in modeling, and modeling is more about lifestyle than anything. Sure there is the glamour, fantasy in fashion which is fun to observe, and enjoy looking at, but that is a small percent of the photo shoots, campaigns and production that goes into the marketing and advertising worlds of selling products and models holding the product or using it.  Most models are not supermodels, most are print models who have personality to help sell a products image. They are modeling accessories, technology, skincare, beauty, or for products in the areas of fitness, health, home goods, cars, beverages, food, oh yes coffee, and in the tampon commercials! Look around your house. Each item you own was most likely marketed to you by a model who was not a fashion model.

On this blog, soon, I am going to be showing you day in the life images that I see throughout my own day that represent "print modeling" and "commercial print models."  An ad on a bus, in a magazine, in a store window.
Showing you that print modeling is alive and moving and accepts all ages, colors, shapes and sizes. You just have to notice it.

Something that is also good to notice and accept is the reality. Print models can make nice money, but print models are not jet set typically. Print models can model until they are grandmothers, but that doesn't mean they will model every single day and be sent on 10 castings a day. Print models still wait 30-60 days to get paid from a job. Print models are marketing their personality and other assets beyond height mostly. Print models experience a more hands-on pursuit. Print models are everywhere you look.

This is how I end the book Short Stuff: on the job with an x-small model:

                                                  It’s OK to be short. But not short-sighted.



I only know I am short when I stand next to something tall.”

~Isobella Jade

I know that it’s one thing to be short; and that it’s another to be short-sighted. I might not be a tall supermodel strutting her stuff on the catwalk, or posing in high fashion clothing for high fashion magazines – but that’s not everything in modeling.

Remember, striving as a modeling isn't about just knowing what you want to model, it is about knowing what you’re good for in modeling – knowing where you can realistically find opportunity and chasing it. Make sure you’re considering all you COULD DO, not just what you may not be tall enough to do. To be successful as a model it really takes a marketing mindset, a perceptive eye, knowing what is marketable about yourself, and being ambitiously realistic. Notice how I said nothing about height; it just takes enough will to try in the right ways.

I love surprising people and the looks on people’s faces when they meet me and ask, “But you’re so short. I thought all models were tall?”
I usually tell them with some sass in my voice, “Height isn’t everything in modeling when you focus on the other assets you’ve got.” Not matter your height, aim high, because the higher you aim— truly the more you get!

Isobella Jade



Sunday, September 26, 2010

New book: Short Stuff: on the job with an x-small model is due in October

Hi Girls,

I am excited to share with you the cover of my new book called:


It’s a new collection of modeling stories from on-the-job experiences with Marshalls, Victoria's Secret, Macy's, Easy Spirit and other modeling jobs that took place after writing my memoir Almost 5'4". 

Also it’s also part “modeling tips for short chicks,” which was inspired by You, my blog readers and online readers, and my listeners of my podcast radio show www.blogtalkradio.com/isobellajade.
 
Short Stuff is due: October 12th, 2010, of course you can pre-order if you wish! :)

You can find it online here:  http://www.amazon.com/Short-Stuff-job-x-small-model/dp/061531743X/ref=sr_1_4?s=gateway&ie=UTF8&qid=1285520301&sr=8-4


And here: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Short-Stuff/Isobella-Jade/e/9780615317434/?itm=3&USRI=Isobella+Jade 

(cover images will be on those sites soon)

If you have enjoyed my blog then I know you will enjoy this book! I look forward to sharing it with you :)

Aim high and always try!
Isobella

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Five Steps to get ahead as a Short Model podcast

Hey Girls,  Back to my podcast! Tomorrow morning reading some tips from my upcoming book Short Stuff,-which involves short stories from on the job modeling experiences and also tips for models of all sizes, due in October. Tune in if you can to the live show which shares Five Steps to get ahead as a Short Model.

~isobella

Tune into the segment here:
Thursday 9/23/2010
10:30 AM EST

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/isobellajade/2010/09/23/five-steps-to-get-ahead-as-a-short-model-from-book-short-stuff





(Isobella Jade TM)

The best honeymoon ever!


Hi Girls,

I wanted to share some pics from my honeymoon!  Just got back Sunday. For our honeymoon we went to Italy, Tuscany for 2 weeks! But we saw a lot!! We went to the Greve in Chianti wine festival and it was really fun discovering local wines that are not in the US and chatting with the vineyard owners, we stayed in a villa in Panzano called Villa le Barone, SO NICE, and I love Tuscany!

We also really ENJOYED Florence-firenze, walking the streets reminded me of NYC, & we drove to Pisa's Leaning Tower & Duomo, which were amazing, and we stayed in Siena for 6 days and Siena's Duomo was so eye-popping we went twice! & throughout the trip we took day trips to the sweet medieval towns Montipulciano & Lucca & Arezzo & the medieval Manhattan called San Gimignano, and went to Portofino, at the sea, for a night was so, so beautiful.  Also Italy is a lot more hilly that I thought it was. You'd drive through a tunnel, throught a hill often,--also the towns on hills were amazing, you'd drive on a major curvy hill and it would be like driving near a cliff, but the cliff was so beautiful, (Portofino).

We also went to Grosseto and went to the beach called Castiglione della pescia, and also Talomone was SO beautiful, the water is so clear and it is so untouched and raw. We also went to St. Stefano which reminded me of a more commercial Portfofino.

I think the pics here will explain the fun we had. Being in Italy you can't help but feel the culture, absorb the art, sit in awe, appreciate the history (I kept thinking, while looking at the art and paintings and skylines of Italy, about how nothing in America that was built which we admire now as historic was even conceptualized yet, imagine art and buildings, creations from the year 1000 or 1200?), the beauty of Italy will blow you away and the stories found in each town and city. I remember sitting in a lawn chair in Chianti at Villa le Barone and the stars, omg, it was unreal, like a dream how clear the stars were, how bright, how many!  Two nights we looked at the stars in Chianti during our stay and it was very memorable for us. 

We ate so much gelato and pasta, pork, seafood, wine!  Just don't try to eat between the hours of 2 or 5pm, it will be tough! Many doors close between those hours, so be prepared to eat late, 7-9ish. And don't mind the repeat of outfits, it was 2 weeks of not washing clothing and you will see some repeats of outfits, I hope you like the brown scarf I bought in Florence for 5 euro, love! I will share more about the cute fashion finds from Italy that I discovered and love. Especially Intimissimi lingerie which I first boughtin Rome and now it is a treat and special thing to get when I visit Italy always.  Here are some pictures from the start of the trip. I will share more throughout this week. 

If you click the image it should go bigger. ciao bella  ~Isobella

Actually, before Italy, we got to spend a few hours in Paris, we had a 7 hour layover!

Paris!

Florence!
The cathedral!
On top of the Giotto's bell tower, which is next to the The cathedral, - I climbed this in heels! See here.



Even stopped by a LUSH in Florence, bought Angels on bare skin, to use on the trip. 

Tuscany!
More pics to come!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Petite Modeling Tips and Stylish Short Chicks!

Hey Girls!


I am back from 2 weeks in Italy! Before I share some pictures from that amazing time, I wanted to make sure you have been checking out the Short and Stylish features on my blog www.PetiteModelingtips.com that have been up while I was in Italy and I hope you have enjoyed the features!  Here are the previous features and if you'd like to submit, please do! I hope it becomes an on-going-feature, to submit email your photo to me at petitepride@yahoo.com, and share your name, height, where you're from, what you are wearing and how you remain happy about your stylish self in your own unique way, despite your height! Fashion might not love the short chicks, but we can still create our own path, and we can still like what we wear with some hustle and creativity and the will to work what we've got! :) ~Isobella
Here I am wearing a Tocca sweater, which I shrunk by accident in the wash, but it turns out, it fits better now! :)
More to come!

Friday, September 3, 2010

A birthday wish for my self, reflecting in this past year

To Myself,

Happy Birthday girl, you should be proud of yourself. Since your last birthday your graphic novel Model Life came out, Almost 5'4" came out in the UK, and soon your third book Short Stuff will be out and you got engaged last fall and married this summer. It's hard to sit still sometimes, and I know there are actually 3 book projects you'd like to put out in the coming year but pace yourself and give yourself a chance to breath sometimes.

This year you also were assured that you can research and research, find the right editors and pitch, pitch and pitch a book to publishers, and when you get rejection it feels like wasted time spent, seriously, so although you will pitch publishers still for certain concepts, a book deal is not your end-goal, it's putting out great stuff that you believe in and are passionate about. Continue to create and write and share, and if you self-publish it that isn't a big deal, you can self market, you've done it and done a really great job before. Stay in the drivers seat. Continue to believe in what you want and yourself.

Continue to strive to work with brands you like and want to work with, not just for modeling though, but to bring together brands with your readership as well.

This year the amount of letters from girls who read your blogs, watch your videos, listen to your podcast and hang with you through social media has really been inspiring and proof and even more reason to create and put it out there.

To striving, chasing and giving yourself a chance for many more years,
~Isobella

Thursday, September 2, 2010

7 pm TODAY Long Live Short Models and Stuff Stuff on my Model Talk Radio

Tomorrow is my birthday, September 3rd, and tomorrow I also fly to Italy for a two week honeymoon with my man.

When I return the promotion for my third book "Short Stuff: on the job with an x-small model" begins.

On this segment I will be sharing insight on the journey of building ones self as a model and author, and tips on staying inspired, overcoming the doubt and the power of self promotion.

All I want for my birthday is, if you haven't yet, to check out my books; my modeling memoir called Almost 5'4" and my graphic novel "Model Life: The Journey of a Pint-Size Fashion Warrior",  they are both on Amazon and BN.com.

Also starting next week, even though I am out of town I have arranged for Short&Stylish to start! The posts will start next week!

You can submit for a Short&Stylish feature by emailing me your photo, where you live, your height and how you stay stylish despite your height and lack of mass retail for petite sizes to petitepride@yahoo.com

Check out the segment here live at 7pm EST Today or keep in mind this segment... will run for 2 weeks while I am in Italy so you can catch the archive.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/isobellajade/2010/09/02/long-live-short-models-and-stuff-stuff

Aim high, strive on, and getting older means having more memories so use each day wisely!
~Isobella

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

To Lilit Marcus I'd rather be homeless than work a 9-5

I don't work a 9-5 but I work all freaking day, working for yourself is being your own damn assistant alot! I know what it is like to be your own assistant and carry signage, huge signage across the West Side Highway and almost bust your ass, I know what it is like to wait an hour at the post office and smell the guy in front of you who has terrible body ordors, and staying up past midnight every night working so hard to make a personal deadline that your brain is so freaking fried that thinking is hard to think about, however I am lucky because I am not working a 9-5 and I can't get fired because I surely would if I was, and if I get pissed or upset really I am the boss to hate so I just take a 5 minute break on the couch and maybe even cry and then... after some swearing, I'll fix my mascara and carry on. Anyways was at Lilit Marcus @saveassistants Book Party tonight for her book called Save the Assistants, and gave her my "Model Life" graphic novel. I hope she likes it. Check her book out! Click the title above,  clicking to look inside won't work.


And by the way, I was once living out of a suitcase by choice because I'd rather hustle than work a 9-5, so although I am not homeless anymore, I would rather be homeless again than ever work wake up every day just for my lunch break that only lasts about 10 minutes. If you do work a 9-5 and you are handling it well then that's awesome, if you do then I hope you strive to make sure it is something that you love to do, that raising your heartbeat and makes you actually think, however sitting in one place all day makes me have ants in my pants, I have a hard time sitting still, faxing, and taking orders!

~Isobella