Attitude matters as a fashion model

Being a model is like any other job – you have to bring the right skills and attitude to it.  Without that, you are doomed to failure.  Among the things that help make for a successful career:

  1. Self-Discipline: You have to be able to get to go-sees, shoots, jobs, meetings and appointments, in good condition and able to perform. If you can’t do that, people will find out very fast, they talk to each other and they remember.
  2. Commitment: Modeling requires sacrifice of time, resources, effort and giving up other things you could be doing that you may enjoy.  You can’t just hang out and wait to do jobs when called – you have to spend a lot of effort and perhaps significant money preparing yourself for work as a model.
  3. Ability to get along with others: Models have to work with photographers, art directors, clients, makeup artists, agency staff and other models.  All of these people and others influence which jobs you get and don’t get.  Any of them may be able to keep you from getting work, even if you are the person with the best “look” for the job.  And all of them talk to each other.  If you are abrasive, obnoxious, rude or just someone they don’t like to work with – you won’t get much work.  In the long run, people tend to hire people that they like to work with, and you are trying to get hired all the time.
  4. Self Confidence: No matter what you really think or feel inside, you must show that you are confident in your ability to be what the client needs you to be. Self-doubts need to get left at the door of the go-see or studio.
  5. Teamwork: Modeling can be a lot of fun (as well as a lot of hard work).  You may find that you are the center of attention, people fluttering around you all day, the object of constant praise, and made up to look like something you only hoped you could be.  At times like that it is very difficult to remember that this isn’t about you.  It’s about what the client needs, and you are there to be just that.  If you look the best you have ever looked, and that isn’t what the client wants, you have failed.  As a model you are playing a role, and you need to be what the role calls for, not what you want to be.