What's happening!
I want to say thank you to Adia Joelle, who was the first person to post a question on my profile.
Her question was, "Joey, I'm 5'5, what's your advice for the shorter model?"
First of all, let's say it out loud. Models do come in all shapes and sizes. I know that the industry height standard for fashion modeling is 5' 9" but, honestly, height isn't everything in modeling. There are so many other avenues that a shorter model could take rather than just doing high fashion shoots or runway events.
Before any model starts their career, they need to recognize their limits. Short models need to accept that modeling is not always going to be high fashion for them. It is most likely a world of products and lifestyle magazines verses high fashion magazines. As a shorter model, you need to market yourself, as they say in the business, a commercial print model.
Commercial print modeling includes a variety of things, including fashion, a lot of products, and catalogs.
Shorter models take note: all the commercials for hair and cosmetics are being done by actresses. Most of the actresses are not 5'9". If they weren't already personalities, we would call them commercial print models.
There are a lot of opportunities for a person to be a commercial print model. Let's face it; if you watch TV, you'll notice there are a lot more product commercials than there are fashion commercials. The advice that I tell every model going into commercial print is to make sure you have some background in acting, with a focus in film and television. If you haven't already, you need to sign up for some film and television acting classes, and I would highly recommend you take a cold reading class.
Most agencies that bill themselves as TV commercial agencies also have a print division because actors and actresses who do television love to do print jobs, and they pay almost as well as fashion print jobs. Many of the agencies on our sister site, ModelWire, have commercial print divisions. For example, RMP Talent and MSA agencies are both on ModelWire and both focus on commercial print model management.
I hope you find this advice helpful, Adia, and best of luck with your career.
In the meantime…
Have a successful day!
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