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Spotlight on junior models’ world

Spotlight on junior models’ world

Wednesday, October 03, 2012, 12:00 GMT+7

Many parents nowadays push their child to train to become a model from a tender age, sometimes to the little kids’ exhaustion and loss of innocence.

In Hanoi, the Baby Model Club has operated for only two years but has attracted hundreds of little kids.

Every year, the Hanoi Kids Center’s Fashion Club opens model training classes for different age brackets, including 4-6 years old and 7-9 years old, to thousands of kids.

Dozens of other cultural centers and fashion clubs in Hanoi also hold modeling classes for kids.

According to An Ninh Thu Do newspaper, there are now more than 10 modeling classes for kids in southern Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s entertainment hub.

Modeling companies also hunt for kid models with potential and train them professionally.

“Parents send their kids here mostly to boost their self- confidence, enhance their communication skills and help them take better care of themselves and be more tasteful in choosing clothes to wear,” said Nguyen Thi Kim Binh, head of the Hoa Mi Club in Hanoi.

Some want to have their kids’ physical flaws, including stooped posture or an unattractive gait, fixed, while others just want to follow the current fad.

Meanwhile, many parents nurture the dream that their child will become a supermodel in the near future and thus put their child under a lot of pressure, Binh added.

In a typical practice session, around 20 kids, aged from 4-11, walked quite clumsily on a catwalk to exciting background music.

These little boys and girls with their naïve looks are being trained hard to walk with crossed legs in a straight line and practice posing just like adult models.

model

The girls wear fancy makeup and high-heels and are dressed gorgeously, while some of the boys wear earrings in one ear and have their hair done stylishly like their idols.

Some of them still have candy in their mouths or drink milk every five to ten minutes, and several cry and won’t go onstage but are cajoled or pushed by their mother or grandmother.

Despite recent scandals involving teen girl models, many people still send their teenage children to the modeling classes.

The teen girls, aged 12-15, who possess startling heights and prematurely developed, sensually attractive bodies, look much older than their age in their heavy makeup, revealing clothes and very high-heeled shoes.

Artistic career: gains and losses

“Previously, many parents didn’t want their children to become models as they were afraid it would affect their schooling,” said Tuyet Van, who was a teen model herself and is now a stylist for Nhi Dong newspaper.

Nowadays, however, a lot of them encourage or even force their kids to pursue a professional artistic career despite its negative sides and the difficulties entailed in such work, Van added.

Many of these young models-to-be have to cut back on their daytime and extra classes to fit in the practice, rehearsal and performance schedules.

Their parents or grandparents also have to take days off work to take them and tend to them at the performances.

Also, they have to pay a sum of money if they want their child to earn a spot in shows aired on television.

“Performing in the shows is very tiring; we can’t go home until after midnight,” said 9-year-old Tram Anh.

“We spend quite a lot of money on makeup, cosmetics and performing outfits and other accessories for the performances,” said the mother of 10-year-old Gia An, who has trained to be a model for five years.

The mother of 13 year old Nguyen Cat Anh Khue, who is already 1.76 tall, said her daughter does not like to wear high-heels, but the instructor requires her to wear 10-cm high shoes.

“She complained of sore feet the first few days. I’m also worried that she may have problems with her spine and heels,” she added.

Child models participate in the same activities as their adult colleagues, ranging from ad photo shoots to acting in commercials or films and going on performing trips.

Among them, 8-year-old Bao Tram, who began taking modeling classes when she was four, has been the representative model for the famed kid fashion company Kico for two consecutive years.

She is also the main model in many fashion shows.

“I have to decline many invitations to keep her from being distracted from her school work,” said Tram’s mother.

Regarding earnings, according to the mother of a baby model who is often invited to perform in commercials and shows in Hanoi, earnings from acting in commercials are around US$ 500 each time at the maximum, whereas the money received from performing in shows is only enough to buy her child lunch.

There are also problems in working with the baby models. According to Tuyet Van, the biggest difficulty in working with very young models is choosing and combining their performance outfits, as some of them are fat and have a big belly and won’t wear clothes that don’t fit them.

Another major challenge is taking outdoor photo shoots of the baby models, as each session lasts several hours and the kids easily get tired from frolicking and posing for photos, Van added.

“We shouldn’t impose what we want on the babies like we do on teen models. It’s very difficult for them to express the desired emotions, so instead we should let them act naturally and spontaneously,” Van said.

The appearance of kid models in shows and commercials has brought fresh air and novelty to the fashion business.

However, the dazzling fashion world is full of deadly traps and performing at a tender age may distract the kid models from their academic studies, and rob them of an innocent, fun-packed childhood.

According to An Ninh Thu Do newspaper, more beauty and fashion contests for kids are being held in which the young contestants are prohibited from wearing sexy clothes, but in fact many of them violate this regulation.

This is due to some parents’ ambitions to catapult their child to fame or the organizers’ schemes to make big profits from the children’s physical beauty.

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