The 8 stages of becoming a supermodel
As anyone who’s ever watched America’s Next Top Model can attest, being a model is actually hard.
And being a supermodel is even harder.
Although in the age of Instagram and being famous for being famous, it may seem like it’s relatively easy to become a supermodel, there’s still a lot of work that goes into making millions of dollars a year for getting your picture taken.
Here are the eight stages every supermodel has to go through in order to be worthy of the title.
READ ALSO: Who Makes More Money a Year, Kendall or Gigi
Stage 1 — You get scouted at the mall
The first step to becoming a supermodel is to become a real model. Racking up hundreds of likes on Instagram is chill, but getting signed to an agency that has the power to get you money that’s not coming from a detox tea company is better.
While there are plenty of successful supermodels whose careers were started the old fashioned way — Tyra Banks and Janice Dickinson were rejected from agency after agency until somebody took a chance on them, while Kendall and Gigi just so happened to be daughters of famous people — it helps if you get discovered out in the wild.
Think about it.
If your beauty is so overwhelmingly powerful that a random casting director/agent feels compelled to flag you down and give you a contract, you really have something.
It happened to Kate Moss in 1988 when she was 14 — only it was even crazier, because she got spotted in an airport — and to Naomi Campbell in 1986 when was was 15 while window shopping.
Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell?
Does it get more iconic than that?
Granted, it’s also hella creepy to have some rando approach a super not-legal girl in a public place and be like, you’re so pretty, wanna model for me? But you know, use your discretion because when that rando person’s legit af, it can pay off big time.
Stage 2 — Getting big in Japan
The good news is you have an agent, but the bad news is nobody know who tf you are yet, so you gotta start hustling, hard.
Shooting with random photographers in Paris and Japan, modeling for some fashion show that technically takes place during fashion week but isn’t on the official schedule, modeling for Abercrombie and Fitch — as long as it’s not porn, if they’re offering it, you should take it.
Pretty much nothing is beneath you at this point.
You never know where your big break is coming from, so you best be taking full advantage of every opportunity that comes your way so you can start getting gigs that actually matter.
Hailey Baldwin’s first gig was a prom fashion show, after all, and Kylie’s was for Avril Lavigne’s short-lived clothing line. Yikes.
Stage 3 – Booking your first respectable runway gig
Before the ad campaigns, magazine covers, and makeup contracts start rolling in, you have to pay your dues on the runway.
And nothing gets the fashion world to take you seriously like booking your first show with a fashion brand anybody who’s ever listened to a rap song once would recognize.
And once you start booking the big shows, there’s only one direction your modeling career can go.
Up.
From here, models start popping up on as many respectable runways as humanly possible to get their name out there.
READ ALSO: 6 Celebs Whose First Attempts At Runway Were Embarrassing
Stage 4 – Selling products with your face
Once you’ve gotten your face out there, you can start using your marketability to make yourself some dough.
Career launching campaigns like Guess will start rolling in and the fashion industry will start taking you seriously as a product selling machine, which doesn’t sound glamorous, but at the end of the day, fashion is a business just like any other.
If your face doesn’t help their bottom line, you won’t get booked.
Simple as that.
So better work on your poses bb.
Stage 5 – Seeing Your Face On the Magazines
At this point, you’re a big enough deal in the fashion world that people know who you are.
Or at least, they know your face, because they’re seeing it everywhere.
Now is when you start booking magazine covers — and not just small magazines nobody’s ever heard of, but the big boys like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar.
Basically, you’re kind of a big deal.
Stage 6 – Being the Hardest Working Model In Showbiz
Aaaaaaaand now you’re officially a big deal.
People know your name, they know your face, and you’ve probably walked in the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
Literally everybody and their mother wants to work with you now, which is good because at this point in you want to work with everybody.
You’re inches away from being a supermodel, but you still have some work to do before you can get there.
This is why Bella Hadid and most of the Victoria Secret models you don’t know by name walk at least a show a day every fashion week.
They just have a little bit left to prove.
Stage 7 – Making the Big Bucks
Congratulations girl, you’re officially a supermodel.
You’re a full-fledged brand now, which means you don’t have to get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.
But like, you actually don’t have to.
There’s a reason why Kendall, Gigi and Karlie Kloss don’t walk in every show anymore.
They don’t have to.
Being a supermodel means booking exclusive runway deals — where brands pay you hella money to make sure you only walk for them in any given fashion week — and getting paid a ton to do something random like hawk a fragrance.
Or, if you want, you can use your name recognition to design your own clothing line.
People will buy it just because it’s yours!
In the words of Kanye West, who may not be a supermodel, but is a superstar, welcome to the good life.
READ ALSO: Gigi Hadid’s Runway Show Yesterday Was Hot
Stage 8 – Welcome to Yoloville
Once you’ve been a supermodel for a few years, you can do whatever you want and still be called a supermodel for the rest of your life.
Launch your own beauty empire, star in movies where aliens pick plants underwater, start a modeling agency for people who don’t look like models, become Tom Brady’s biggest fan, you name it!
The world is your oyster.
And from time to time — AKA when the money is right — you can come back to the fashion industry to shoot a campaign or walk down the catwalk, just to remind the world you still got it.
Life’s good, ain’t it?
