Friday, May 1, 1998
Model Students
PEOPLE:
Five UCLA students balance modeling careers with
the vastly different lifestyle of full-time schooling, juggling everything
from photo shoots
to sociology midterms
By Meghan Ward
Daily Bruin Contributor
Ever play the game of Scruples? Would you pose nude for $10,000? Run a red light at three in the morning if no one was looking? Would you miss class for $1,500? Miss an exam for $5,000? For some students at UCLA, every day is a game of Scruples.
Five UCLA students strive to achieve the delicate balance between getting good grades and managing careers as high fashion runway, print and commercial models. They refuse to allow the glamour and excess of the fashion industry seduce them away from completing their degrees.
While many self-indulgent models buy Gucci shoes and do lines of cocaine in the bathroom stalls of the hottest nightclubs in town, these five models spend their money on college tuition and drink iced-blendeds at little tables in Lu Valle Commons. Trading in the catwalk for Bruin Walk, they sacrifice working in Milan for Armani and in New York with Donna Karan. Is it all worth it?
"Maybe I'm just wacky," David Cash admits. A third- year sociology student with a 3.7 GPA, Cash says it has always been important to him to attain at least one degree. Cash just finished filming a Carl's Junior commercial and will be featured in next month's issue of Mademoiselle magazine. While the primary motivation for most students going to UCLA is to begin a career, Cash is delaying his own career in order to finish college.
An aspiring actor and writer, will a degree in sociology help Cash to land a role on prime-time television? Probably not. "For a lot of people their degree has nothing to do with what type of work they are doing," Cash explains, "So my reasoning was that I'd just take a major that I'm interested in."
Cash is not the only one who does not plan to use his degree after graduation. Alex Sage has been modeling since she was 16 and plans to model for at least five years after she graduates this spring. With a 3.5 GPA in communications, Sage plans to return to UCLA extension to get a certificate in computer graphic design and start her own business retouching photographs for models.
Because Sage's mother worked as a fashion model, Sage grew up knowing that modeling was an option for her. "I never considered not going to college. I just needed money to support myself and modeling was easy," Sage explains. Sage was planning a career in advertising until she interned at a PR firm and hated it.
"When you're making $50,000 when you're 20 years old to making $15,000 at an entry-level job, it's a hard transition." Sage thinks that the downfall of modeling is that models lose sight of what they really want to do with their lives. Easy money, lots of free time and no pressure to make plans for the future can equal both personal and financial disaster.
According to Huey Nguyen, in charge of the women's print division at L.A. Models, the career span of a fashion model in Los Angeles ranges from the age of 14 to about 25 years old. "The ones who are over 25 and didn't go to school are still trying to model and they are struggling. Their faces start to sag, they gain weight," Nguyen says.
Though Nguyen is a firm advocate of college education, he is the exception to the rule. Many agents encourage models to drop out of high school or college to pursue full-time careers. They plant visions of Vogue and GQ in their heads.
Krista Klayman, head of the runway division at LA Models, relates the story of one model who dropped out of high school after gracing the cover of Vogue at the tender age of 14. "By 17 no one gave a shit about her anymore and she never finished high school," Klayman says. Though by being in school, models lose money both for themselves and for the agency, Klayman encourages them to persevere.
"I get so many models that made so much money, that were hotshot big time stars and today, 15 years later, they don't have anything. They can't pay their rent, they hock their jewelry," Klayman says.
Klayman, like Nguyen, tries to schedule auditions and jobs around the class schedules of her models. The rule of thumb for both Nguyen and Klayman is that if a job comes up that falls on a day that the model is in school, they check first with the model to see if she wants to do the job.
The general rule for models attending UCLA is they will miss class for a booking but not for an audition. During midterms and finals, if the job is worth a lot of money, they will try to work with the professor to reschedule the exam.
Last fall and winter quarters, Charles Ingram had to reschedule all of his midterms. Sage had to reschedule a final. Sometimes Shawn Phillips misses a whole week of classes for an out-of-town booking. "I missed two and a half weeks in a row last quarter," Sage says. Some professors are more understanding than others when it comes to making up exams. "This quarter there are no changes, no exceptions," Ingram concedes.
A third-year sociology student, Ingram does not find the modeling business to be fulfilling. He spends what little free time he has teaching scuba diving and practicing martial arts. After four and a half years serving in a U.S. Marine Corps elite unit, Ingram fell into modeling when his girlfriend entered him in the C&R Man contest.
Ingram found that his personality was changing, that he was happier. He gave up joining the U.S. SWAT team to become a model and go to college. "I never had a mentor," Ingram explains, "I'll be the first of my brothers to graduate. I wanted to show them they have options, instead of being a sniper like I did."
Ingram plans to attend paramedic school after graduation and to work part time as a paramedic and part time as an actor and model. This year he is taking off summer and fall quarters to host a television show on the Animal Planet channel called "Planet Ocean." Viewers will accompany Ingram to seven countries around the world on scuba-diving expeditions. "You get opportunities like this you can't pass up," Ingram says.
Alicia Dunams, a fourth-year English student, does not feel the same way about modeling. Though she is glad that she took the time out to give it a try, two years ago she gave up her modeling career and transferred to UCLA.
Dunams was attending UC Davis when she first began to model. When work got too hectic and she was driving to San Francisco twice a week, she dropped out of school and took advantage of her time off to travel to Milan.
"I was with Fashion (agency) and the moment I got there they stripped me down naked and stood there looking at me. They were talking in Italian. They didn't like how much I weighed," Dunams relates.
At 5-foot, 9-inches, Dunams weighed in at a hefty 115 pounds. Dunams did not like the fact that she was being judged solely on her external appearance. They told her that her look was not in that season in Milan. They told her she needed to lose weight. Instead, she lost her self-esteem.
One day in Milan, Dunams found herself miserable and crying in the middle of the street. She looked up to see a UCLA sticker on the bumper of a car.
"That was my epiphany. I came back and went to school," Dunams says.
Phillips, a fourth-year economics and philosophy student, is gradually preparing himself for what he calls "a real job." Aspiring to be an investment banker, Phillips sees modeling merely as a means to an end, that end being a college degree. Phillips, like the others, has a difficult time juggling the drastically different roles of model and student.
"To get a job in some of these competitive firms in investment banking you need a really high GPA, but to turn down $1,500 for one class is ridiculous." These are decisions that model students are faced with every day. Is an A on an exam worth $5,000? Is a quiz worth $1,500? Is a whole quarter worth $50,000?
"I don't look at the short-term loss. I look at the long-term benefits," Phillips says. The modeling world may seem exciting and glamorous to outsiders, but those on the inside do not necessarily agree.
"It's pretty boring. That's why a lot of people have to have an awesome night life and that go out and do drugs - because they're bored." Then there's the instability. This season you are hot, the next you are not.
"You're your own product and if you get rejected 10-20 times, you're a mess," Phillips claims. You can go to the gym, you can buy new clothes. Beyond that, there is not a whole lot one can do."
(Top right and below) Alicia Dunams, a fourth-year English student, used to model, but gave up her modeling career when she came to UCLA. (Bottom right and left) Shawn Phillips, a fourth-year economics and philosophy student, sees modeling as a temporary job while he pursues a college degree.