INTERVIEW + TESTIMONIAL

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Julie and Kimiko who are both parents of two child/teen models, Jianna (15) and Kasandra (13), respectively.

Both Jianna and Kasandra are successful child/teen models on social media with many followers and subscribers. They travel abroad regularly throughout the year for modeling gigs including runway fashion shows, fashion weeks, editorial publication projects, as well as their own extracurricular activities and events. Jianna has mostly operated independently with her mother representing her, and Kasandra is signed with multiple agencies in the PNW.

I've worked with Jianna and Julie for about 4 years now. I've worked with Kasandra and her mom Kimiko for about 1 year. I asked Julie and Kimiko if they'd be willing to film an interview and testimonial about what it's like being parents of child models, and also about their experience working with me so far. Here’s the questions and their responses below.

The complete video is available to watch on YouTube with optional closed captions / subtitles. It includes an interview and testimonial by Jianna and Kasandra, and finishes with Julie and Kimiko’s interview and testimonial afterward. Julie and Kimiko's interview and testimonial can be read below.

Please note that Julie and Kimiko do not have any professional media training and have minimal public speaking experience. Kimiko has a very strong accent and her English is still developing. The only editing I applied was removing unnecessary conjunctions such as “and’s”, “uhh’s”, “you know’s”, “also’s”, “so…’s”, “but’s”, awkward pauses, loud breathing moments, long thinking moments, and unnecessary long-winded, or wordy/verbose expressions. This was only to make the video and audio more cohesive and understandable only. Their answers still remain complete and have not been changed.

Q : What about your daughters are you most proud of?

Julie : “I am most proud of her determination. I like that she's also really an independent thinker and very much a self-starter”.

Kimiko : “I'm proud of her resilience, and as well as she works very hard in her school work, modeling, robotics, anything that she is interested in, she works very hard”.

Q : How involved are you in her modeling? Do you manage her? Or does she manage herself?

Julie : “Pretty much it's me that does everything. As she's gotten older I've asked more for her feedback; what does she like? What does she prefer to do? I definitely support her wishes and dreams. At this point she has a lot of say-so in what she's involved in, or not involved in.”

Kimiko : “All the casting opportunities, scheduling, contacting a photographer, responding (on) Instagram, Facebook, it’s me. Some of the things that she can manage, like, when she needs to go to casting, she needs to get ready, and I’m not going to tell her what to bring. Oh, one thing, I drive a lot!”

Julie adds in agreement : “-Yes, to the mom-Taxi thing”.

Q : What are some challenges that come with being a parent of a child model?

Kimiko : “My daughter is 13 years old; starting to be going through a teenager attitude. Sometimes she has a strong say. Sometimes when I give some feedback, for her, it sounds like a criticism, so I need to make sure that I have nice wording in making sure that it’s a feedback”.

Julie : “In the beginning, the challenges were that she almost wanted to do too much. I felt like -I didn’t say this (to her) -but I felt like telling her to pick one or two things. We can’t do everything right now. As she’s gotten older, she’s gotten more picky naturally and gravitates towards other things. I try to just look at it as part of that determination and fire that she’s going to need to get through life, and that helps me to deal with it, and also to give her space to make those decisions. I want her to develop a capacity to decide what she likes to be involved in, and to weigh the pros and cons; short term and long term consequences. So that’s the stage we’re at. I just ask her to make a pros and cons list, or to weigh it out, whether or not she wants to do it, what could happen in the short term or long term. If she says yes or no. Her final say is usually what we go with”.

Q : How do you protect your daughters online? Any tips or recommendations?

Julie : “At this point, I run her account. I use a lot of privacy settings. Our Instagram is not private for strategic reasons, just so that she can be available to represent a brand better. She’s not online on any of those accounts unless I ask her to comment on something or return a message, or to choose something that a brand has asked her to choose, or ask her about an opportunity that’s presented itself. It's always me. I have “parent run account” written on the front of her account. She is of age to have one, but she does not interact with people”.

Kimiko : “I manage her account. She does not have access to her account, and I’m always making sure that whoever (contacts) us, we can choose to accept the DM. If I don’t like it, I’m sorry that I had to turn it down, or some spam. I just delete it, block it, and keep it not happening again. The other thing that I’m always careful about when posting, making sure that it seems like somebody is posting, but that she herself is not posting. Because I don’t want people to think that she’s posting, and then they probably think “oh, she’s going to respond back to us”. So when I ever interact with a direct mail, I’m always introducing myself (as) the mother. I manage the account. She doesn’t have an account. So I set the expectation that no one is going to get through before me”.

Q : What advice would you give for other parents and/or kids, considering getting into modeling?

Kimiko : “Number one, safety. Only work with a credible person. Check the background, what kind of portfolio they have. Who’s going to be there? Have they been working with models? Also, what’s the production? You might want to double check to see. You need to do some research; where are they going to be shooting at? When is it going to be? What’s it for? Who’s going to be working with, what kind of portfolio they are specializing in? These things have to be checked.

And number two, modeling is not cheap. Investing in the runway, coaches, posing, and creating a portfolio is very expensive. And number three, your job is going to be guiding for your children to be able to achieve what they want to do, but at the same time, you have a daily obligation, your work, and family obligation. So balancing, and time management is very important.

And lastly, do not have high expectations of kids. Even though your kids are very pretty, there will always be people who are prettier, taller, and can walk better. So you don’t think just because your daughter’s pretty, you’re going to make tons of money -no. That’s not going to happen very often. So just don’t push too much expectation for your kid.

Kids (are) getting a very good skill; going to have confidence, friendship, how to be resilient, how to cope with rejection, and then also congratulating the peers. But the parents, that’s when another has to be careful that they shouldn’t be having a high expectation. Not all the model(s) can be agent represented”. (Note : Jianna is very successful while also not being represented by any talent agencies or professional management at the time of this interview).

Julie : “I agree with training. Just make sure that you find somewhere that’s reputable. I also would say, make sure it’s something the child wants to do. From the outside looking in it seems one way. Give it a try, always keep it fun and positive. Let their energy level lead, because sometimes kids can get hungry, or their moods can change. Just be sensitive to that. If they say something isn’t fun, move on.

There’s a lot of things that you can do in entertainment and modeling. So there’s a lot of things to try. Try what you can, what’s available in your area, and ask friends that have their kids involved in things like that. How did they get started? What are they doing? What would they recommend? Parents who have kids doing these activities usually have good advice; what they would change or do differently if they had known. Just keep asking your child what they like. What did they not like? What would they change? What would they like to try? Let their interests lead.

Also, when you have your child with you, keep them with you. There shouldn’t be a reason that you would be asked to leave in a situation with modeling or entertainment of a child. You should always be able to observe what’s going on”.

Q : How do you feel about your experience working with Stephan so far?

Kimiko : “Excellent. He’s very good at communication. He’s very clear what he wants to do, what he’s expecting the kids to do, and what kind of result he wants to get. He’s very professional. The way he communicates with kids, very professional. Easy to work with. And the quality of the photos is amazing. Julie : “When my daughter started, she did not have experience. She wanted to do all things. So I was like “okay, we’re gonna try to do all the things that you want to do”.

My concern was, how patient is this photographer, and will this go okay, because my child at that point, did not know how to really do anything in front of the camera, and needed a lot of direction. It turned out great. She wanted that direction. He was able to give it to her to say, “move your head like this”, or “move your arm over here”.

That’s been huge for her. She’s taken that into other opportunities, other photoshoots, other modeling opportunities. Even just walking into a room and being confident, and knowing how to stand, and what to do with her hands, or what to do with her head. It’s helped her a lot.

I appreciate that. I think she was very nervous at first. She’s not really nervous anymore. She comes in, she understands how to be professional and how to take directions. She does not take things personally. She wants the shot to be good. That experience has been huge”

Q : How do you feel about Stephan’s feet photography? What made you decide to allow Stephan to photograph their feet?

Kimiko : “I was looking for an opportunity for parts modeling. She (Kasandra) is still young and doesn’t have very many opportunities in our region. So I was excited that she was able to do that (foot modeling). She has beautiful fingers, and also her toes are pretty flexible and pretty good size. We’re also interested in jewelry modeling. To be able to use the hands and feet to show off products is important”.

Julie : “If you really look at modeling, there’s lots of different types of modeling, and I love the idea of parts modeling. I don’t know that my child could do hair (modeling) ‘cause she’s always putting it in a ponytail and it breaks. But I know that there are people that are well suited for hair modeling. There are people well suited for hand modeling, feet modeling. It’s been a really great experience for her.

She’s not necessarily the most girly girl. That might surprise a lot of you. It’s helped her a lot to embrace her femininity, to think of her feet as pretty. It broadened her mindset about modeling as well. Parts modeling is a great way to learn confidence, to learn to respect your body too.

For me, it’s no different than people who do hair modeling, or any other type of modeling. Beauty shots are your face. It’s just a different style of photography. Who doesn’t love shoes, sandals, and painting your toenails. It’s great”.

Q : Would you recommend Stephan to other parents of child models who might be interested in this type of gig work? Why or why not.

Julie : “Perfect question for me. I actually did” (gestures to Kimiko) “There you go”.

Kimiko : “Thank you”.

Julie : “Yeah, I would, again, definitely. I think it’s a great opportunity. The feedback alone is so worth it. For the kids to be able to experience a professional setting; that work experience is universal. It’s huge. It’s something that they can take into any setting and grow into. It’s been amazing.

Kimiko : “For me, I really don’t want to recommend anybody because we don’t want to lose opportunities (joking), but in my heart -Yes! I’d actually like to introduce a couple more teen model friends (to Stephan). They’re going to have a positive experience, and confidence levels will probably sky rocket, and the quality of the photos, they can keep (in) their portfolio. So, yes, I definitely would recommend it to anybody who might be interested”.

Q : What do you have planned for the rest of today? What’s next?

Kimiko : “So we’re gonna go home. Probably want to stop by and eat. Kasandra actually has a Volley ball tournament in Washington D.C. She has to get up at 4:30 am. I have to get up at 4:00 am. She also has robotics competitions coming up. So between now and March, she’s going to be pretty busy”.

Julie : “We are right in the middle of gymnastics competition season. So I’m just trying to hold everything open. We never know about injuries, or energy levels. She’s gonna need extra work on a skill, at a private lesson. Once mid March comes, I think I will be able to think past the gymnastics competition season. Jianna is a very busy girl. She always has ideas. I just do my best to try to keep up with them. So we’ll see”.