Girl Model
By Emma Buzzell
Girl Model is a movie that follows Nadya, a 13 year old girl from Siberia, and her journey as a model. The film opens with a casting for a Japanese modeling agency, where Ashley, a model scout, clearly likes Nadya: not too tall but not too short, skinny, and young, thereby perfectly meeting all of Japan's requirements.
Ashley is a former model and says that modeling was what she hated more than anything, but that it's an addiction. Modeling is all Ashley has known since she started at the age of 17, and because of that, she is scared to try new things.
Nadya flies from Siberia to Tokyo to model, with a promise of two jobs and no debt. She’s scheduled for four castings a day. At the first casting, Nadya is told to say she is 15 even though she is 13. As time goes on, Nadya and her roommate Madlyn want to go home. Nadya can’t eat because she hasn’t been paid yet. The modeling contract says they can't travel, swim, or be in the sun, and they have to be on diets. (Sounds like model prison to me.) The contract also says they can send the girls home if they gain 1 cm in their waist, hips, or bust. Madlyn purposely gains 2 cm in her waist and is sent home with over $2000 in debt.
Through being a model, models learn that their bodies are sacred. Ashley explains that many models become prostitutes, especially after they finish modeling because they’ve been taught that the only way to make money is with their body. And that's not cool - actually it's awful.
Nadya is also eventually sent home from Switch, the modeling agency featured in the film, with $2000+ in debt because she never got a job, even though her contract guarantees it. Nadya's family had been planning to extend their house with the money Nadya made, but now that can’t happen. Ashley tells interviewers at another casting that models never go in debt in Japan, despite the fact that both Nadya and. Madlyn both went into debt--not even taking into account the other models who have gone to Tokyo.
The film raises questions about who is actually to blame for this: it's not the models’ fault, and the scouts are just trying to please the agency, and the agency doesn't know for a fact the models’ true ages. The film Girl Model really exposes the world of modeling—the excitement, frustrations, anger, and everything in between.