Confessions of a Fashion Model

I will never forget the first Music class I had at the American School. The teacher had a very alternative style (at least for that time) and he made a big circle so that the students could face each other. He suggested an exercise: We had to declare a good and a bad thing about the person in front of us.

Right there in front of me sat a really chubby boy with round glasses. Gosh, I even remember his name, even after twenty-seven years: Francisco. A good thing about him...hmmm, let me see... "He has a great smile!" I said. And then he smiled.

Then the teacher asked, "What about the bad thing??" I'd always been very careful not to hurt anybody's feelings...but then the professor obliged me to get it out of my system. So I said in a low tone, "He is a little chubby..." Little! The whole class laughed, which made me even more uncomfortable and from red I turned to purple.

"You only said physical aspects... I want personality traits..." Bit~t~e me! I always thought that a great smile came from a great personality, but a fat body came from a bad eating habit, plus a bit of (should I have said bite again?) lack of self-care. Francisco then said, "She's very pretty! But she's way too shy..." And the whole class made a huge sound like saying, "I totally agree!"

I had to overcome my excessive shyness to become all that I dreamed for me. And then I became a model so that I could accomplish all that. This work allowed me not only to pay my studies, my travels, but also to open my mind to a whole new world. There were many who considered this job as a futile vanity fair, depreciating it to the bones. But only those who have small brains cannot realize that this job requires a lot of patience, good humor, balance, and energy, not to mention the people skill.

And models have to be quite a strong personality to overcome all the rejections they would eventually have to face. I remember when I was at a model agency in Paris, showing my portifolio to a totally oblivious person. She didn't even look at it, she didn't even take a second to look at me and said, "Tu n'as pas le look de Paris." I said, "Thank God I don't have the Parisian Look... Or I would be dead by now!"

I just saw the Fashion Show in Paris, with all the anorexic models shaking their bones, and standing on the catwalk, smoking. Never wondered why they all have that dead fish look in their eyes, that cadaveric regard, and cheek bones ready to crack? Lack of food and oxygen in their brains. And they are the ones showing the fashion these days...Would you rather fit on that image?? No, thanks... 'd rather not! More than anything else I'd rather think to myself that I was first of all and above all a model of health, not hell. For as much as I've been in Persephone's world, I always have a big smile over my face wherever I go... for a smile is contagious! And as the world is the reflection of your own world, it's much better to project joy into your life and onto others, than to desert before the dessert. To blame is to be lame.
Just try to tame.

And now they are using children with too much make up and dressed like adults. When will they know that a child looks so much better being a child?? That's just a reflection of a world which seems to have lost its parameter...No wonder our planet looks so sick...you don't have to look inside the cover of a magazine to find that out. It's right there in front cover!