Time for a lore drop! I used to be a model 💅 My mom modelled in the 70s, and explicitly forbid me from doing it so I was late to the industry. I only started working when I turned 18, which is ancient compared to when they prefer girls to start. The modelling industry is ruthless, I fully support anyone with a beautiful daughter to prohibit them from getting into it young. No matter how skinny I got, agents always pointed out that my hips were huge and I needed to lose more. At the time I was 5'11" and only 120 lbs, looking back I had a real skeleton vibe but there was never any suppressing dat ass which the industry hated 🤣 They loved to call me basic and commercial or catalog. If you ever want to maximally insult a model call her catalog. I had long blonde hair and a very All-American look when I started. They had me cut it all off into a short bob with bangs and dyed it dark brown. The hope was that with my cheekbones I could compete with the Eastern Europeans who were so en vogue at that time. I still was mainly considered commercial. I mostly got paid for catalog or promo events. I did get several fun gigs doing jewelry modeling which was just to show up in a plain black dress and get bedazzled for parties, I liked those jobs because I got paid in expensive jewelry. By the time I made it to NYC I was considered very old (I was 22). I shared a 400 sqft studio with a Turkish beauty queen and we furnished with creatively repurposed stuff we found dumpster diving. We did some runway events but very off brand ones never anything famous. Mostly at that point we just "modelled" for club promotions, that company would feed us dinner (it was considered faux pas to eat but we did anyways because we couldn't afford food otherwise) and bus us around town to dance in VIP sections with free booze. It was mostly about giving old rich dudes an opportunity to be seen around young beautiful people. As such, it got super gross. You know who doesn't make for good company? Coked up hungry 14 year old girls. But that's not an opinion gross old rich dudes share I guess 🤑🤮🤑 When all these "revelations" about sex trafficking came out in recent years I was only confused and shocked that this hadn't been common knowledge already 😅 like yea, no shit? The modelling, music, and theater industry has been sex work since forever. All those "classy" ballerinas way back when? Whores. Actors or singers going back hundreds of years? Mmhmm. And no it's not a gender specific thing this goes for the guys too 🤣 And like. Idk. I don't judge those who engaged in the sex work aspect, and it's always been confusing to me that the broader public does. Have we forgotten the 1958 award winning movie Gigi about a child raised to be a courtesan? This has always been our culture and we can change it but not by denying it 💅 Don't let your daughters go into those industries until they have a very secure sense of self and are not shy about punching someone's testicles if need be 💯🤣😱