After school I had a job working at a Daycare andsome kids were really handsome or pretty and I know if my child is really handsome I’m getting him into modeling. Do these parents know that modeling now could pay for a college education later? I think any parents of particularly cute kids should be trying to get them in the JC Penney catalog or something. That’s my humble opinion.
As the mom of a beautiful kid (no, really, she is), I’ve got several reasons.
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Location. Not many modeling agencies here in West Virginia. Unless you’re in a major US city, or willing to move, forget it. No kid is so beautiful that an agency is going to come to you (not when beautiful kids with pushy parents are a dime a dozen). You’ve gotta go to them.
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Ethics (sort of). My kid has a brain. I want her to use it instead of going through life thinking she can get by with a smile and batting her eyes. Beauty fades. Brains only get better with time. Sure, modeling could pay for college. So could getting good grades throughout school.
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The desire to give her a childhood. Why push her into modeling jobs and haul her all over the state/country for photo shoots when she could be outside playing, climbing trees with her friends, reading books and blowing things up with her chemistry set? Adulthood lasts a very, very long time and we work for the majority of it. Why make her do something in childhood that she’s going to do anyway for the rest of her life?
I don’t look down on parents who do the modeling thing as long as their kid wants to do it, too. (There are some ambitious, ballbusting little kids running around out there!) But using your kid as a meal ticket is just wrong, IMHO. I knew a model back as a preteen. Beautiful girl and she had NO life. She couldn’t ride bikes (might have a wreck and get a bruise or something), couldn’t eat anything that tasted good (hadta watch her weight) – couldn’t have fun at all because she might do something to wreck her career. That had to have sucked.
Modelling takes a lot of time, talent, and dedication. Almost any kid is better off NOT being a child model, or a child actor.
I love my kids. Why would I do that to them?
What Abbie Carmichael said.
Having grown up in Los Angeles, I knew a few kids who acted and/or modeled. One of them couldn’t go to summer camp for two weeks without his mother’s nagging him to keep in touch with his agent. The boy had no life outside school and work.
I myself modeled sleepwear in a catalog for Buffum’s Department Store when I was 3 months old. Once. My mother could tell stories.
Robin
The better question is why would anyone subject their kids to a modeling career? I say let kids be kids. Let them play and have fun. Let them go to school and learn.
Having to work every day and earn a living is a big enough pain in the butt for me. I wouldn’t wish it on a poor defenseless kid.
Mine is too, and I have the pictures to prove it! 
Someone from an agency tried to “recruit” her, you would have thought I’d grown two heads the way she looked at me when I said we weren’t interested.
I think someone might be taking the piss.
It’s not really as simple as dragging your kid into Penney’s and saying, “See how cute my kid is? You want him in your catalog?”
A child model needs an agent and a portfolio. Portfolios are very expensive, and for children, need to be updated often as their looks change quickly as they grow.
I don’t know where catalogs are produced (I would assume New York or LA), but it’s a lot harder than it looks. A local catalog or flyer for a mom & pop store might be easier, but a national chain is major work.
I would suggest you watch “Showbiz Moms and Dads” on Bravo tonight at 9:00 eastern. There should be a lively (read: snarky) discussion afterwards in the Cafe Society forum. It’s a short series about several familes in New York, LA and Florida who are trying to get their kids into acting, modeling and child beauty pageants.
If parents aren’t putting their children through modelling… then where do all the child models come from?
A lot of child models are children of people already in the industry, so it’s a bit easier for them to break through than somebody out of the biz. In that Bravo TV show about child actors/models/etc (I can’t remember the name right now), the most successful of the children had a mother who was already an agent pre-child and knew the ins and outs. Most of the other parents were just clueless about how to go about it effectively and are doing a grave disservice (if not actual harm!) to their kids.
We have an absolutely precious two-year old girl who won first place at some “child star” competition in the local mall when she was an infant (about the same age as the baptism photo). We won $250.00 and a free pass to the next level of the competition in Cincinnatti, which we declined (much to the consternation of the officials I gotta tell you!) And the reason why is simple: we don’t want to go into “the life” and we don’t want to do that to our daughter. Childhood is for learning and fun, not work and earnings.
My son was adorable, and had a fantastic “tv” personality. He was outgoing and sweet. People always told me I should get him into show biz. But the way I see it, if they’re interested in it, they can get into it on their own. He’s still very handsome, but has no desire (that I know of) to be in the biz.
She is a sweetie. Well done for not taking them up on their kind offer.
Is there anything worse then teaching a child that they are valuable because they are pretty from a young age?
My chap has very blue eyes and very very long dark eyelashes. By the age of 2 he met strangers with what I called the salute. Basicaly he put his hand over the part of him that would draw attention.
He is 12 now and well over that. But it did make me sad that a 2 year old was so aware of what people would say to him about his appearance that he wanted to hide it (and it was a good thing!!!).
Not only all that, but the kid has to have the temperment for modeling and acting. All kids are beautiful and would look good with a good photographer, but they don’t just want cute kids. They need kids that can handle direction, being away from Mommy, and being subjected to the conditions of a studio. I’m pretty sure that how the parents handle things also has a bearing on who they choose. Overbearing stage moms would surely make things too difficult for the people working with their kids.
That’s the actual name of a store? “Buffum’s”?
I was all set to model diapers once, but my dream was dashed when the photographer asked me how the hell I got onto the set, and why a 30-year-old man would even want to wear diapers in the first place. He also said I have a big ass. I tried to convince him that I was the ideal diaper model by giving an impromptu demonstration of the fantastic new Leak Guard, but that only seemed to make him madder.
This is the thing I have the biggest difficulty with. Little kids who work well away from mummy?..k so when you are finished with them you will pass the name on to the local peadeophile?
I’m joking obviously but I don’t want my child to be marketable becuse he is easily manipulated when away from mummy.
I’m not positive, but I don’t think it’s that the parents aren’t there; just that they stay out of the way. Basically, they let the professionals and the kid do their jobs without interfering. The kid needs to be able to handle direction without having to have Mom or Dad holding his hand. I’m sure no legitimate studio would refuse to allow the parents to stay in the room with the kid.
I easily could model my kid–especially as I live within spitting distance of NYC. He’s extremely photogenic, friendly, and easygoing. I’ve received some inquiries. But the pay isn’t enough to justify the potential negatives that the others in this thread have described. It’s not like high-fashion models who “don’t even get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.”
But even if the pay was enough? So what?
If someone told me my child looked physically able to work in a coal mine, would I want him to?
Kids are kids, they have no obligation to work. It doesn’t matter if they are pretty and compliant or ugly and as manipulative as a brick. Surely being part of a Western society means our children are not going to be subjected to child labour.
Pretty children should have no less rights.
An ad with a child makes me wonder what the motives of the parent were.
When I was about 7-8 I was riding the subway with my mom and a rep of the Ford modeling agency (one of the top agencies in the biz) gave me mom her card and told her to bring me in (actually I’d already been on TV once, on a game show. It was kinda fun and I won $100).
My mom never did. Basically she thought kids should be kids and go to school and play in the park and join little league, not have some bizarro-world career with deadlines and makeup artists.
Plus, it probably occured to her that I was a VERY tomboyish child and would not have enjoyed getting “prettied up” in the least. I would have considered it a form of torture, actually.
Thanks, mom! 
Especially considering my parents were struggling to make ends meet at the time, I’m sure they could have used the money.