The darkness within the shiny modeling industry is being brought to light. And it's heart-breaking.
As the newly launched Model Alliance seeks to protect models and CFDA release new industry guidelines requiring models to be at least 16 years old, the industry's controversy has only surfaced more.
While the world of supermodels seems to be all glamorous, the reality for most working models is an earning close to the minimum wage, long hours and unregulated working conditions, according to The American Prospect. Pressure to pose nude and sexual harassment constantly threaten the mostly teenage girls.
“Models are salespeople, and they’re selling this fantasy of glamour and excess, so it’s hard to be the face of a well-known luxury brand and have people understand that you didn’t get paid for that work and are indebted to your agency,” said Sarah Ziff, a co-founder of Model Alliance.
The most recent violation of CFDA's regulation was Marc Jacobs, who used two models under 16 years old at his New York Fashion Week runway.
Asked of why, Jacobs said, “Well, there are children actors and children models for catalogs and stuff so I guess if a parent thinks it’s OK for a kid, and a kid wants to do it, that’s fine.”
And a new film, which unveils the darkness of modeling industry, is now creating much buzz.
Nadya Vall, a 13-year-old model from Siberia, is featured in a documentary film Girl Model.
Directed by David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, Girl Model premiered at the South by Southwest festival and screened at the Toronto Film Festival, and is awaiting U.S. release later in 2012.
The idolization of youth and beauty is vividly presented through Vall's life - shipped from Siberia to Japan, and to the U.S. as former model Ashley Arbaugh scouts and builds the impoverished teen's life into a modeling meat-market that exploits young souls for superficial beauty.
"You can't be young enough," says Arbaugh, while she is torn by her role of commoditizing the girls in the shady market.
"I look at beauty and I think of young girls - beautiful."
Vall "has a fresh, young, face, she looks young, almost like a prepubescent girl," said Arbaugh, suggesting that Japan and the West find beauty in prepubescent looks.
In a Q&A on the film's press notes, the filmmakers revealed the lack of support by the film industry when Vall landed in Tokyo.
"When Nadya first arrived at the airport in Tokyo, she was expected to find her way to the agency on her own, with just an address on a slip of paper," said Sabin.
"She didn’t speak the language, didn’t know how to get there or even how to figure it out. She didn’t know who to ask or where to turn and hadn’t ever travelled abroad before. Had we not intervened to help her find the way,
she would have become exasperated, completely lost in Tokyo and probably would have lost all trust in us. It was one of the rare times we decided to intervene."
At the end of the trailer, Vall is seen weeping and crying out for her mother.
The 13-year old has decided to continue working as a model.