Teen Queen/ Teen Dreams photoshoot- a scam or am I paranoid?

[purplesam]

My 13 yr-old DD had her picture taken by a modelling scout (along with a friend) while shopping in Milton Keynes. We were phoned a week later and told that she had been scouted for the face of Pulp (clothing retailer) by a company who also run the Teen Queen/ Teen Dreams competition. Her friend was not called. She was asked to come to london for a test shoot and told she could then just go for the Pulp thing or also enter the 2 competitions if she would like to. We went today and she had a wonderful time; was an absolute natural for the camera and the pictures were totally stunning. We were told that the pictures would be sent to Pulp and that she could enter the competitions too if she chose, as expected, but then were given the chance to buy CD images of the shoot ourselves- cost ranging from £45 for ONE image to £590 for whole CD. We were also told that we could have a list of agents and further advice- but only by spending even more. Now we didn't go with the intention of buying expensive pictures at all, and amazing as they were I managed to resist (much to DD's disappointment of course!). The photos would have made an excellent portfolio for her (she is very interested in modelling)- but is it just me or is this silly money to spend? I was told that the prices were cheap by industry standards but find that hard to believe. Plus, surely if she is good enough the pictures will get her somewhere anyway, which is why we did the photoshoot in the first place.

[AbiTheActress]

To me that is a lot of money! A good way to build up a portfolio is to find photographers willing to do the shoot for whats called 'time for CD' it is basically so that the model and photographer can both build up their portfolios. A good sight that I have used in the past is http://www.modelmayhem.com/ you can search for photographers that live close to you and you can see on their profile what other people have said about them and then message them to see if they are interested in doing a photo shoot. The good thing about it is that you can tell them exactly the type of photos you want, I am not interested in modelling but I have used the site to get my acting headshots done for free! Hope this helps

[tikka]

Just clicked on your link, Abithe actress, and was rather concerned to see that all the photos on their home page are of girls wearing very few clothes.

If anyone else follows this link then you may want to think about which little people are looking at the computer screen at the same time :-)

[tikka]

purplesam, we often get adverts via a company called Groupon. You can pay upfront for a voucher to spend in the future at a great reduction. You can sign up for local vouchers or national ones. Nearly every couple of weeks there's one for a local Photographer (different company each time). Todays one was a saving of 92% on the cost of a 1 hour shoot and you get 3 photos, with the opportunity to spend loads more (but you don't need to!).

Sounds like a big con but I've bought the vouchers for a Photobook (where you uplaod your own pics and they print them in a lovely book) and for a restaurant - both were amazing bargains and completely con free!

Might be worth looking there. Just google Groupon.

[AbiTheActress]

Ooops sorry I forgot that some of you have small kids, there are good people on the site I swear but there are some people from all different types of modelling too!

[pg]

No I don't think you are paranoid, and yes, I'm afraid that does sound like a scam to me.

Well done for resisting the urge.

Have a look at this advice page from Storm models:
http://www.stormmodels.com/become-model ... e-a-model1

Note this in particular:
Fourth – do not pay for any pictures

Do not believe anyone who tells you that you need a professional portfolio to be considered by an agency. Natural shots without make-up are the best guides for us to decide as to your potential.

Many people have thrown away hundreds of pounds having useless pictures taken on false promises.