8 Useful Tips To Get Your Child Into Modelling

Is your child a darling in front of the camera? Do your friends and family adore your child’s pictures in social media and often suggest you should think about getting your child into modelling? If you have no clue how to go about this, here is a quick guide.

Modelling: Is It Right For Your Child?

Before understanding how the kids’ modelling industry works, you need to understand one thing. Just having a pretty face is not enough for modelling. You and your baby should be able to give more than that. So, you need to answer two questions:

1. Does your child have it in him/her to be a model?
   There are three important characteristics that your child possess (in addition to having a camera-friendly face) to be a successful child model:
   • Temperament: An extremely shy child will not enjoy the attention that modelling brings. To be a model, your child needs to be very comfortable in interacting with strangers. He/she should also be good at listening to instructions given to him/her and following the guidelines correctly. While a free-spirited child who listens only to his/her own self will might not adapt to the instruction-led world of modelling
   • Personality: Parents of successful child models swear that their kids are very outgoing, smiles easily and very friendly by nature
   • Ability to handle disappointment: While this particular characteristic does not impact your child’s work, it will definitely impact his/her life. Remember that your child will have to face a lot of rejections once he/she is a model. Not every job is suitable for your child. And your child should be able to handle the “no” sportingly
2. Do you have it in you to be the parent of a child model?
   The parents of child models definitely has more work and stress than the child models themselves. So, it is also important to ask if this is right for you. Remember that you will need to have a lot of free time as you will have to drive your child for auditions, wait for the child’s turn and drive back. And if selected, it means more driving around. So if you are a working parent hoping to do this in the evenings and weekends, it might not work for you

Now, if you answered yes to all the questions above, then awesome! You are ready to understand the steps involved in making your child a model.

Steps Involved In Getting Your Child Into Modelling

• Get few good photographs of your baby. It need not be professionally shot or portfolio standard. Usually one close up and one full-length photograph would be good enough
• Identify few modelling agencies in your locality and send your child’s photographs to all of them
• If the agency head hunters like what they see, they will give you a call
• Once you get a call, you go and meet the relevant people in the agency, and they sign your child up. All reputable agencies signs up children free of cost. They only charge you once you have got an assignment. Remember this and do not fall prey to scams
• Now, every time there is a requirement for a child of your kid’s age group, the agency will intimate you. You take your child to the respective audition
• After the audition, if your child is picked, your agency will let you know
• Your child does the assignment. Agency will take a 10-20% cut from your child’s pay and transfer rest to your child