Bridget Bites : Making It as a Successful Model

Q:

I am 15 and signed with elite models, but I am so desperate to model but worried I won’t make any money and will be a model who no one has ever heard of and living with their parents because I have not made enough money. Please help me! X

A:

Hi! First off – breathe! It will be ok.

Making it as a model is an extremely hard thing to predict. My career has spanned 12 years, and has had many ups and downs. There were times that I got jobs out of left field that changed the course of my career, and other times where I got turned down from jobs for reasons that had not even occurred to me. But at the end of the day, I am still me, and the world keeps on turning. Life doesn’t always go according to plan – but freaking out before it has even really begun achieves exactly nothing.

You are fifteen years old, and panicking about the future. You cannot control the future anymore than you can control what happens in your modeling career. Obviously to some degree you can make sure you are in shape, turn up on time and work hard, but everything else is left up to chance. So I want to ask you, why does it matter so much to you about how much money or success you have as a model? Why do you feel such anxiety at the prospect of not making it? Will you feel like you have failed as a human?

Because you definitely would not have. You have so much more to offer to the world than just modeling – and you owe it to yourself and the world to find out what that is. Develop interests in many things, read, get a good education and experience as much as possible. Become a fully formed human; modeling will happen as it does. I have always found it best to almost ignore the modeling world, and let it happen to you as a surprise. Because the people you work with want to get to know you, not you the model. The most successful girls are the ones who are entirely original and laid back about the whole thing. They are also the most happy.

The other thing is that this career will not last forever. Even if you are the most successful model ever and make loads of money, eventually you will feel it is time to move onto something else (or the industry will make it clear). So make sure you are keeping your ears open to the world around you, and find other interests. It will make the transition so much easier.

Modeling is a great job. It has allowed for so much good in my life; but the key to making the most of it is treating it like a job. Be professional, enjoy it, but do not let it take over your whole sense of self and confidence. You can tell which girls are desperate a mile away, and usually they are the most stressed and unhappy. Life is too short to spend it worrying about a job!

So keep your sense of self separate from any career or success or failure in your life. You owe it to you and your capabilities on this planet.

And breathe 😀 Everything happens exactly the way it is supposed to! Even when it is painful.

 

Love,

Bridget