So, as any readers will know, after I came back from the trip with the girls, I was due to fly down to London to meet with an agency. Well, that happened, but as any of my fellow facebookers will know, it didn't exactly go as planned.
On the Sunday evening, I accomplished a personal first - flying alone to London Luton airport. I was irrationally terrified at the prospect of a) looking like a terrorist, b) beeping going through the arch of terror in security, c) forgetting my passport, d) any other number of possible airport disasters I was more than likely to run into. But! I managed to get through all the traumas successfully, and arrived at the airport feeling pretty proud of myself (yeah yeah yeah, I know I'm a massive sad act.) Linda was there waiting to pick me up, and it was so good to see her. We often talk on facebook, so it was lovely to be able to sit and have a proper 'real life' chat with her, and her home was beautiful... I had my own, gorgeous room and in all honesty I wouldn't have left two days later if I didn't have to!
Well anyway, on Monday I had an appointment at 1pm with an agency, so Linda dutifully dropped me at Windsor train station (because she's lovely like that), and I got the train to Waterloo, from there catching a cab to King's Road in Chelsea where the agency have their main premises. I had been nervous about the meeting, but was also feeling relatively positive as they had specifically asked me to go and see them. However, I was told when I got there that I was too fat for editorial work, and too tall for any commercial... They half-heartedly told me they could put me on their books and try and find me some bits and bobs of work, but that I would be way down on their priority list and it would be unlikely they'd find me work. I have to be honest, hearing that was quite a blow, especially considering in our email exchange the head booker had been really enthusiastic about my images. The girl that interviewed me, on the other hand, said I had 'nothing of any use or worth' in my portfolio. In all honesty, after the way they spoke to me, I chose to refuse their lacklustre offer of representation - surely, the whole point of being signed to an agency is that their job is to actively find you work? If the agency don't believe in me, why should anyone else? So I bid them good day, and wandered down to another couple of agencies on King's Road.
Neither of these two agencies wanted to add me to their books; however, they were so, so much more helpful than the first (and funnily enough, way more established and respected than the first). I had a lot of positive feedback; both told me I had a beautiful face and that I could do really well, but that I wasn't quite right for them. One of them sat with me for quite a while, just to urge me not to give up, which I took to be a really positive sign. The booker also said to give it another six months, expand my book a little more and try again, so that's certainly something to aim for, is it not!?
I tried three other agencies that day, and was actually almost signed to one. The two bookers that I spoke to really liked me, and had even offered me representation, before the head booker came along and veto'd it because they already had a girl on their books who had a similar look. Which was a little irritating, but again, not exactly hugely negative... Hey, if someone that looks like me is already on the books of an agency, that can only be a reassuring thought :)
By the end of the day, I was feeling quite disheartened - a little frustrating to be continually told, "You're really good and we love your face, but no, you're not quite right for us. But keep trying!" I began to think, well... where do I keep trying? But then I realised that I had achieved something that a lot of girls might not - I went to London, and spoke to some of the biggest agencies in the country, and received no overtly negative comments, only encouragement for the most part. So in the end, I flew out of Luton airport not on a low from coming home without a contract, but feeling positive that a contract may happen eventually, but even if it doesn't materialise, I absolutely love what I'm doing, and I will continue to do it with or without the representation of an agency :)
And since coming home, I have had interest from an agency in Manchester, and a commercial agency in London... So, all hope is not lost, and positivity is absolutely key :) And I'm not going to allow myself to worry about whether something will or will not come from it; the interest is enough to renew my confidence in the work I'm producing, and although I'm about to spout a most tired cliché - what will be will be.
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