For the past seven weeks we have been bringing you the story of Ali Turner, courtesy of her mother Patty (tFS user modelmom). Ali’s journal has chronicled the beginning of her modeling career in Paris at 15 years old (which was in 2002).
This segment of ‘Becoming a Model’ is from the perspective of Patty Turner, detailing Ali’s experiences as a young model in New York City.
Read Part 7 here
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Wednesday Jan.8th
Ali told me that her friend Asta was sick today. I went back to the model apartment and took her temperature and it was 101 degrees F. I think it’s just a cold, so I went and picked up some medicine and ingredients to make vegetable soup.
We ate and since it was really late I spent the night in the other bunk in Ali’s room. I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be a good day for Ali.
Thursday Jan.9th
Ali’s castings today were for Gap, Bloomingdales, Nylon Magazine, Neiman Marcus and Teen Vogue again. We missed two of her castings and her New Faces agent kept calling to ask where we were. Then she said, “Just forget it!” and I felt like a two year old in trouble.
Ali and I were still laughing at this point and I kept asking her, “Do you think we are going to have a ‘time out’ when we get back to the agency?”
When we did arrive back at Ford the receptionist ushered us into what we called the ‘quiet room’. Ali’s agent came in and was extremely nice??? She said maybe she was being too hard on us and she had some good news for Ali. She booked the Nylon Magazine job and was confirmed for Teen Vogue. Things are looking up.
Friday Jan. 10th
Ali had a casting today with a photographer named Alban Christ. He is looking for a model that can ride horses but is a little concerned about her age because the location of the shoot is Honduras. We also went to a casting for another photographer. While Ali was inside, it started to rain so I stepped to the side of the building.
The photographer trash was by the curb and I looked down to see hundreds of comp cards thrown away. It was a wake up call. Ali is one of many models in NY who are competing for the chance to hit it big in this business and seeing all of those cards in the trash made me realize her chances were very slim.
We left the photographer and jumped in a cab to get to her Nylon shoot. The cabbie went around the same block twice, finally let us out and charged me $10.00. It didn’t take me long before I realized we were only about a block and a half away from where we started. Another lesson learned.
I cooked again tonight for Ali and the other models. We had spaghetti and salad and everyone ate.
Two of the girls are leaving the apartment tomorrow and Ali’s agent asked if I would like to stay there for awhile till the castings for show season started. The model apartment manager is out of town so I said, “Why not”? Ali’s model apartment rent just doubled but it’s cheaper than where I was staying.
Saturday Jan. 11th
Ali has another shoot for Nylon today. It’s freezing! We rode the subway down to Layfette and Grand for Ali’s shoot. I left Ali there and went back to the apartment to do our wash. Ali called when the shoot was over and I walked to meet her at the subway stop. She was shaking she was so cold…
The shoot was outside and she said she wore a beautiful rainbow dress. (I found out later this was the famous Alexander McQueen dress). They sprayed her hair almost black and glued on bangs for a punk rock look. The other models were going out with a promoter to eat and then over to Carson Daley’s apartment. They told us that Michael Jordan was going to be there after his game. Are they for real?
Ali and I are staying in and watching TV. Two very different worlds.
