“Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.”
This is an excerpt from Baz Luhrmann’s ‘Everybody’s Free (to Wear Sunscreen)’. I was reminded of this poem/song as I left the agency for the day.
My workday began in the lobby of the building, actually. As I was turning in to the entrance, one of our models, “Daphne” (not her real name), was coming out. This is an incredibly beautiful French girl whom I spotted from my car as she was walking down the street one evening. She was not a model at the time, she was a college student. And truth be told, she was a bit ‘rough around the edges’ in her style but I saw something very striking in her.
It turned out I was right in a big way. She’s a natural–striking poses with an ease and grace to put some veterans to shame. I asked her how she knew to pose like that–from her very first test. She said that she’s a fan of silent movies and believes that helped. Whatever it is, it’s working. She’s also incredibly photogenic. So, an extremely winning combination.
She looked fantastic and was off to some castings for the upcoming Collections here in Paris (March 5 – 12). I said, ‘Great! Go get ‘em!’ She said, ‘Yes, but I’m so tall, it’s difficult.’ (She’s 6′1″.) I realised then that she doesn’t realise how fabulous she really is.
I told her, ‘Daphne, you’re not too tall–you’re very tall. There’s a difference. Too tall is a problem. Very tall is an asset. It’s up to you to project that to the clients so that they see it as an asset. But to do that, you have to first see it that way yourself or it will never come across as believable.’ She seemed to get it and left encouraged. I hope so and I hope it lasts.
At the end of the day, another extremely beautiful model came in, this one from Serbia. We’ll call her Malvina. She has everything going for her. I wouldn’t change a thing on her–except, again, the way she sees herself.
The bookers asked her how her castings for the Collections went today. She said, “Well, I dunno. I was sitting in the waiting room and there were so many beautiful girls there, with great books I’m sure. I wondered, “What am I doing here…?”
Egads Malvina! You might as well wear a sandwich board saying “Don’t book me”!
Models, how often do I have to tell you that to compare yourself with anyone else is a losing proposition? What will it take for you to believe me when I say that people will believe about you what you believe about yourself–whether for good or for bad?
What stops these two beautiful girls, blessed with so many gifts, from seeing their true beauty and potential?
I’m afraid for them that Baz Luhrmann’s words will ring true: “Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded.”
What a horrific waste that would be to look back one day, when it’s too late and realise–’I was pretty amazing and I didn’t even know it!’
Now the interesting thing here is that this applies to all of us, model or not. So many of us, probably most of us, tend to focus only on what’s ‘not right’, what we don’t have, what we didn’t do. What if we focused on all that is right with us, what we do have, what we have done and still can do?
What if we lived our life as if it was an asset and not a problem?
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Amazing story, once again. I love the point of what we believe about ourselves is the true source of what we are able to achieve, across the board. This is such good information for everyone! I do wish I had been given this gift when I was young.