Sunday, April 17, 2016

How Can You Change the Face of Beauty??


Is your child a ham? Do they light up when they see a camera? Have you wondered what this whole Changing the Face of Beauty business is all about??

Well I am being totally serious when I say, send your child's photo in to your local agencies!!!! Do it! If Ellie can do it, your child can too!

Since Ellie has been booking modeling jobs I have received a lot of messages from other parents who want to know how to get started. I thought I would list the steps I took here for easy reference.

The first step I took was to google... I googled "child modeling agency" in the largest town near us. I had found two agencies that sounded good. I picked two photos of Ellie that I felt showed her "sparkle", one head shot and one full body shot. At that time Ellie wasn't walking so it ended up being a sitting photo, but it worked out just fine.

Here are the pictures I submitted:



When you submit your photos, there will most likely be an area in the form for comments. This is where I included the link to Changing the Face of Beauty, and I explained to the agencies why I am so passionate about CTFOB's mission. I also told them all about Ellie. 

Then I waited. I had submitted Ellie's photos in December and didn't hear back until March. One agency never called me back. But Puddletown did, and they have been absolutely wonderful to work with. You can see Ellie's talent profile here. We have had a lot of fun with the shoots Ellie has done for Hooray Haroo, Matilda Jane, and Fred Meyer.  She has a Fred Meyer ad that is supposed to run this week, so keep an eye out for it!

The posing. I wasn't going to add this tibit of information but I think it might be helpful. Since Ellie was tiny we have always had fun with her signature "model poses". Here she is as just a little nugget posing for me:


Just a few weeks ago my friend Joelle from Australia messaged me. Her beautiful daughter Josee Hope was asked to be a model for a company called Oobi. And not only a model, but the Unicorn Ambassador for their company - PERFECT!!! Joelle was nervous that Josee wouldn't pose for the camera. Here are some of the tips I shared with her:

The mirror: The mirror has helped us with Ellie's speech, teeth brushing, hair brushing, etc. We also would copy each other's faces in the mirror, so now she will copy any face that I do. It's a great place to start.

The iPad or phone: Letting your child videotape themselves making faces gives them instant gratification. This is another useful speech tool as a matter of fact!

Siblings/Mimicking. This one is HUGE. Mimicking and copying siblings has been a huge help in getting Ellie to do her poses. Even during her Matilda Jane shoot Ellie started to melt down, but then she watched Grandma Barb and copied her, you wonder where her sassy poses came from? 

So Joelle tried these tips with Josee who had never modeled professionally before. She absolutely ROCKED IT. You have to check her out, isn't she amazing??? Oobi Unicorn Ambassador Josee Hope

I was worried about whether modeling would be too time consuming for our crazy life. Honestly I wasn't sure if doing this would even be feasible since I work, but my mother-in-law has been a huge help, thank you Grammee!! She has taken Ellie to both of her Fred Meyer shoots, and the Matilda Jane shoots have been on the weekend, so I was able to take her! We are taking the jobs as they come and are figuring it out as we go. We don't know how long the modeling gigs will keep coming in so we have just decided to have fun in the process. We are also saving Ellie's money for her college fund!

As always, I am here to answer any questions you may have. Seeing children and adults of all abilities in the media is so, so important. It makes my heart swell with pride and excitement when I see more and more companies being involved. My hope is that someday it isn't a big deal and that it just "is", if that makes sense. 

Here are some of her latest photos that I love:

Her first Fred Meyer ad:



Behind the scenes at Matilda Jane:





The real deal, I think they turned out so great:










A few I took this morning:




For this post's song I'm going back to my high school roots (thanks to my niece Karley for rekindling my love for this music). Here is one of my faves from 20 years ago, and now it reminds me of my baby girl:

Beautiful, you're beautiful, as beautiful as the sun
Wonderful, you're wonderful, as wonderful as they come


Beautiful - The Smashing Pumpkins

8 comments:

  1. How to not have everyone of these on a wall..a fridge...in a wallet...a veritable "Ellie SHRINE!!!" Good thing that I'm the President of the Ellie Stafford Fan Club" branch in Salem, OR!!! Of course, our shining star has just started her modeling career...man-the-hatches!!!!! Here she comes!!!

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    1. Any new members? Contact me: Holly Dowell, Salem Chapter Ellie Fanning Fan Club. No dues...meetings...just keep looking at these beautiful pictures of Ellie & fellow budding models and let them BRIGHTEN YOUR DAY!!!!

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  2. We were at Oaks Park yesterday too, and I swore I saw Ellie, now I know it was her! :)

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  3. Thanks for the inspiration. We have three girls and a little boy with Down syndrome. Charlie is 15 months old now. People are always telling me to get him in modelling but I wasn't sure how or if we would like it. We live in Indiana so I'm not sure how many opportunities he would get here. Also I have a friend whose daughter was in a Matilda Jane shoot lately. She has Ds and is 10. She was in her video with Katie Driscoll that went viral. So exciting to see what our kids can do!

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  4. This is one great blog post and of course, Ellie is so gorgeous with an awesome personality and spunk about her. I am actually crying happy tears as I type this. We know all to well the stigma that is placed on the Ds dx, but damn, that stigma couldn't be anymore further from the truth we live everyday. Ellie isn't just a shining star because of her awesome personality, but because she has such an amazing family and support system behind her. You all rock! Complete recipe for success. We love you guys!

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