Workin On some "Blue Steel" Of Our Own

Children's Modeling is big business in Asia. They especially love the Westerners. We had some previous knowledge about this biz from some of Nathan's cousins who modeled overseas when they were little and their experience had been quite positive. I thought we'd eventually look into it when we moved here but I was in no hurry. The second week we were in Taiwan a friend from Church here forwarded an email from an agent desperately looking for a certain height of child for a photo shoot. Long story short that's how we kind of fell into trying out catalog modeling in Taiwan.

I took Aly to the shoot which was really kind of cool, it was a legit photo shoot (meaning the set was set up like what I'd seen that one time I watched ANTM) and they would show me pictures on the computer after they took them and they did a good job getting shots out of a 3 year old.

I am not sure how much of this Aly will do at her age. She really loved it but I don't know if she consistently would so we will play it by ear. Kennedy on the other hand is the perfect age. She was beyond excited when she got her first job, could hardly sleep the night before. We won't get her catalog until spring but Nathan was able to take some pics without the flash for me.

First you go to hair and make-up. I don't know if you can tell but Kenna is so excited ^she is biting her cheeks to keep from smiling.
Nathan said they were almost done with her hair before the message came through that they would be wearing wigs. The photo shoot was for a Betty Boop line and so these wigs are supposed to look like Betty Boop? Okay, maybe Betty Boop after a wild night of partying...

(Rachel, do I even need to say what these wigs remind us of? Hit the deck!)
This line was super heavy on the accessories which was fun for Kennedy, and I personally thought the shoes were all really cute.
Kennedy loved spending the day with Nathan and getting her hair and make-up done like a princess just to take pictures. They told Nathan she did awesome (parent-pride-o-meter shoots off charts) and would tell her to just keep doing what she was doing as they had to help the other little girls with poses and stuff. I am sure it's all the pics she's been forced to take for her blog obsessed mom that has improved her posing abilities. Not that every pic on my blog isn't 100% candid *blush*.

She and this little girl had a great time together, Nathan taught them how to play Paper, Scissors, Rock and they would play this during any down time.
When they got home it was clear Kenna had taken up permanent residence on cloud 9. It was only a little while later that we got a call asking if she could come back in, apparently one of the little girls didn't fit all of her outfits and now they were frantically trying to get the shoot done. So Nathan and Kenna hopped back in the car and went back to do a bit more. Nathan said it was just Kenna and they were throwing outfits on and off of her as fast as they could. They were really grateful that Kenna came back. Our friend whose kids have done tons of this (many ex-pats have at least tried it) said she'd never heard of someone getting called to come back in so I guess they really must've been in a pinch.
The big hub for modeling is Japan, you get paid a lot more there to do this. But Kennedy made nearly $200 U.S. for the shoot which will largely go into her college fund. I think I'd be fine with Kennedy doing a shoot every once in a while as long as she finds it as fun as she did this time.

As far as Aly goes, we just got her catalog- it is so professional. This Monnalisa line is a really high end Italian brand, the clothes were very cute and well made. The catalog is really nice, the pages are made of thick card stock. We couldn't scan them without ruining the binding so we took pictures of the pictures, but still, you get the idea.