So your child or teen has shown an interest in modelling and aside from saving a few bucks for the future, you’re wondering how many other benefits there are to working in the industry. Well, the simple answer to that is there’s quite a lot.
Yep, believe it or not, kids modelling teaches your child so many incredibly beneficial life skills that will help them throughout their young lives and right into adulthood.
Here are some of our favourites.
Kids modelling builds self esteem
We’ll start off with the best benefit—child modelling is a great confidence booster. It stands to reason that a child getting paid to have their photo taken is going to get one helluva confidence boost when they see their image in a magazine or on a billboard, right? Of course that’s true, but it’s not quite what we mean.
You see, in the world of child and teen modelling, a child model will very quickly learn to feel comfortable in their own skin as they attend auditions and casting calls. They’ll learn to be confident in their appearance and both how they speak and hold themselves. Most importantly, they’ll feel valued by the people that they work with.
We’ve seen this on a personal level here at Bubblegum Casting where kids that have joined us have learned so much and built so much self esteem even before they’ve landed that first paying job.
It teaches kids about failure
Whether it’s a low score on a school test or simply not being able to complete a puzzle—failure is a part of life for all kids. And in the world of kids modelling, failure or rejection is just another of the challenges young models face on a regular basis.
This is because modelling is a highly competitive industry where casting directors may have hundreds of child model portfolios to look through before narrowing down their search to a select few. This means that no matter how cute or talented your child is, there will be many many times that they don’t land the job… and that’s perfectly fine.
Modelling teaches your child that they can’t always win and that losing isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, you’ll be surprised at how mature kids can be when they hear they didn’t land a job. You might even hear them say ‘oh, I knew I wouldn’t get that job. I need to work on my poses’ (this is actually something we heard a kid say here at Bubblegum!)
Kid models learn a solid work ethic
Kids modelling is hard work. There are auditions, casting calls, portfolio shoots, and perhaps even modelling classes, and that’s before your child even lands a paying job!
That said, all this hard work teaches your child an extremely valuable lesson about how sometimes achieving a goal takes a lot more effort. It also teaches them about the responsibilities that come with working in a professional environment and that is certainly something that will stand them in good stead in the future.
Modelling teaches kids the value of money
Any parent knows that teaching a child the value of money is a near impossible task especially for the younger ones. But it’s a life skill that everyone needs to learn (even a few of us grown ups!)
Kids modelling can help your child understand the true value of the money that they have earned. Now, we know that the average fee paid to a model for a shoot is a lot more than any child could expect to spend at the toy store. But a percentage of their fee given to them after they have been paid is a great way for a child to see exactly how much work is required to earn a specific amount.
This is what we often recommend to parents who ask us for advice on how to handle their children’s finances. While we’re certainly not qualified to dish out long-term investment advice, we do think that a little percentage in their pocket can go a long way to helping children value their money and reinforce that solid work ethic we mentioned earlier.
It’s a great start to a lifelong career
Okay, so maybe it’s a little soon to decide what your little cherub wants to do for the rest of their lives, but bear with us on this one—kids modelling can be a genuine stepping stone to a lifelong career.
Yes, it’s absolutely true. The networking you and your child do throughout their child modeling career can be a great help if they decide to make a go of it as an adult. We’ve had firsthand experience of this here at Bubblegum where some of our talented teen models have graduated from BC and joined our adult division Hunter Talent.
Of course, staying in the industry full-time isn’t for everyone. But there’s certainly a possibility that they can pick up the odd job here and there to make a little extra cash when they’re in college or even if they’re buying their first car or saving a deposit for a house. Yes, it’s a long-game we’re talking about here, but hey, it’s always great to have options, right?
And that, in a nutshell, is why we reckon kids modelling is good for kids. It teaches them about working, the value of money, handling rejection, and most importantly, it builds their self esteem. Not too shabby if you ask us!
If you and your child or teen like the sound of these benefits and you’d like to join the Bubblegum family, then we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch today or apply to join us and we’ll see if we can get your child’s career off to a great start.
