Topteen #1 - Alessandra Liu Cover

Jonathan Route is the owner and operator of J. Route photography based
in Leominster, MA, USA. He shares his insight and experience in the field,
offering advice to teen models and their parents in a new segment featured
in Top Teen.
For more info and to send your questions to Jonathan,
conact him at online:
EMAIL - jroute13@gmail.com
INSTAGRAM - @ jroutephotography
WEBSITE - www.jroutephoto.com
all vinyl fake scene backdrops
and poorly lit photos. Agencies
want professional, properly lit and
composed photos, so your choice
should be a photographer that exhibits
those types of photos. And
remember that it is ok to say no to
a photographer. You don’t have to,
and certainly shouldn’t, say yes to
every shoot and every photographer
that reaches out to you. Pick
two or three reputable photographers
with different styles and develop
good working relationships
with them for your portfolio.
The next thing you should focus
on is makeup and styling for
shoots beyond the basic looks. A
photographer that offers licensed
professional esthetician services
is a plus. Makeup and hair should
always remain age appropriate
and show an age range of a few
years younger and older than
your childs age. Avoid glamour
shots and heavy makeup or looks
well beyond the age of your child.
Avoid going too big too fast with
creative or dramatic looks. Although
there is definitely a place
for the fantastic beautiful artistic
looks, you want to have a strong
basic portfolio built before investing
too much in high end looks.
Keep things basic with a little bit
of fun and creativity to start.
Once you have that first shoot,
or first few shoots under your belt,
you may want to look to a local
agency. Avoid the overwhelming
number of agencies that will
sign your child instantly for a fee
and commitment to several of
their paid classes. A true agency
may want to see some posing or
movement classes, but they don’t
charge a lot of money to sign, and
they don’t sign everyone they
see on first meeting. Most legitimate
agencies will only allow you
to submit via an online form that is part
of their well maintained and professional
website. This is where you will enter
basic information about your child, measurements,
age, shoe size, hobbies and
interests etc. This is where those basic
digitals or “boring” phots will come in
to play. They will ask for you to upload
a basic headshot and a few full body
photos for them to view. Some agencies
may respond within days, some may
take months.
Research agencies in your area, and
even some bigger ones in major cities
near you. Submit to the smaller starter
agencies that are legitimate and may be
a better chance to be signed with, but
also shoot for the moon and submit to
the big city famous agencies, because,
the worst they can say is no. And as
the Great Wayne Gretsky, and Michael
Scott (for any OFFICE fans) said, “You
miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”.
The most important thing that I tell every
new model or prospective model is,
Keep it fun. Don’t go into this thinking
you are going to be the next supermodel
or famous influencer. Go into with the
attitude that if you get signed and get
some paid work and have fun doing it,
that is enough. Go to school, build a future,
make a career for yourself and have
the modeling as great hobby that may
make you some money. If you do make
it big, well good for you, but don’t take
things too seriously and do not put any
pressure to be the next big thing. Don’t
live to compete with every other model,
just do you and have fun doing it.
My plan for this column was just to give
a basic overview of getting your child
started. I will expand on specific parts
and ideas from this theme in future articles
for Teen Look and I also would love
to answer any questions you may have
via a question and answer portion of future
articles.
Jonathan R.
teenlook.ca - 63