The Dream Vs. Reality

The reality is, the vast majority of models will never reach the supermodel stratosphere of limos, champagne, and million dollar paydays. To give you just one example, of the thousands of girls who every year enter the Elite Model Look--a nationwide model search contest to find the next generation of models--only a few of them end up with modeling contracts with the Elite Modeling agency, and maybe just on of them--if she's lucky--may go on to supermodel status.

Although the rewards can be incredible for those fortunate few, a professional modeling career at any level involves a lot of hard work and sacrifice--many models have to leave their friends, boyfriends, and family behind to move to a big city where they can pursue a career. They also usually need to leave or defer going to school in order to model or make special arrangements to complete their basic education. Because most models travel so much, they may need to live out of a suitcase, wearing the same few outfits for weeks at a time, spending more time sitting on planes than at home. Many models, feeling lonely and homesick, also get caught up in drug or alcohol abuse, or are taken advantage of by abusive boyfriends; many end up losing everything they worked so hard to earn. Before you decide whether you want to pursue modeling, it's important that you get a realistic picture of what a career entails.