For the past ten 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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Friday, Jan 17th
Ali left this morning to go to a warehouse on the Pier for her job and I went shopping for her trip to Honduras. We didn’t bring any summer clothes, so I went to pick up a few things. When Ali came in at 8:00 pm, she said her job consisted of standing for the photographer till the lighting was right and then Latetia stepped in to do the shots. This went on most of the day. She was happy because the pay was $600.00 for the day.
Asta left today to go to England for a shoot for Japanese Vogue. Ali will miss her.
Saturday Jan 18th
Ali’s agent came by this morning because two of the models had a major cat fight in the middle of the night over a pillow and blanket that went missing. One of the models packed her things and left.
Ali has a tiny chicken pox scar on her forehead and her agent asked her if she had ever thought about having plastic surgery to have it removed. That woman drives me nuts! It seems she is always looking for some way to put her down. I told her we would pass on the surgery, then told Ali to get her coat because we were going out for a walk.
Ali has a test shoot tomorrow for pictures for her book.
Sunday Jan 19th
Ali left to go to her shoot and I did our wash and packed for her trip. She is traveling with the stylist for the shoot. I met with her today and she promised she would look out for Ali.
I can’t believe I’m letting her go so far away but I guess if she is going to do this right I need to let go sometimes.
Asta came back from England while Ali was gone. I love that kid. She is so sweet and talented. She makes some of her own clothes. She cut off a pair of jeans and made a really cute jean skirt to wear to her castings. She told me that all of her family back in Lithuania lived in a two room house. She sends money when she can to help them out. She won the Supermodel of the World search in 2001 and Ford flew her family to the States to see her win the night of the model search. She’s afraid that Ford will send her home if she doesn’t book some good shows in February.
Ali was back by 5:30pm and I made supper for the girls. She said the photographer said she was going to be famous. I asked her how many times we had heard that already, and we are still waiting. She said she did a Rock and Roll shoot in a long black dress, big bouffant hair and a guitar.
I can’t wait to see that! I leave to go home tomorrow and I’m starting to worry already. She leaves at 4:30 Tuesday morning for Honduras. We were talking tonight and she said to me, “ Mom, can you believe it. I’ve always wanted to do a shoot on the beach with horses and in two days that’s what I will be doing.”
I’m happy for her….I just wish the beach was closer.
I taught Asta, Anika and another model named Kate how to play poker tonight. We played with pennies and Asta won all our money. She thought it was a great game…but I told her to always stick to playing with pennies.
They left to go out and took the cards with them. I hope they don’t think they are card sharks and lose all their money. They left some roses for Ali to wish her good luck on her trip. I told Ali I wished I could take them all home with us.
Ali took the journal to Honduras with her to record her trip.
Part 12 coming soon!
