By Kyung Yoon
Eleven year old Emilie Su is a professional model who has been posing for magazines and walking the runway in major fashion shows since she could barely walk.
“I was around two and a half and an agent saw me on the street with my mom and asked me if i wanted to model”, Emilie says.
Her mom, Jayne Kim, recalls being cautious at first for her toddler. “We went on our first “go-see” and she wound up getting booked with Polo Ralph Lauren,” she says. “She just loved it and had the best time, and she’s been modeling ever since.”
Emilie’s 8-year-old sister, Alexandra, made her modeling debut as a “Pampers baby” who in no time graduated from diapers to designer duds.
Modeling agents say there are plenty of adorable kids, but the one that stands out is the child with personality, interests and a good work ethic.
“We find that our models are typically the best students,” says Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina Kids & Teens. “ Even though they sometimes miss school…they are the brightest from the inside out and that comes through”.
Wallach adds that there is a growing demand in the industry for children of diverse backgrounds. “The days of just one norm of beauty is gone,” she says. “Replacing that is the beauty of all different ethnicities.”
According to Nielsen, Asian American buying power amounts to $770 billion and that figure increased by more than $50 billion in the last year alone. By 2018, the number is expected to top $1 trillion, and that has retailers taking notice.
“It’s all about buying power,” says Wallach. “As the buying power of any ethnicity increases, the advertising directed toward them is going to increase”.
Mom Jayne Kim, a former model herself, notes that when she was growing up in New Jersey, she hardly ever saw an Asian face in print or media advertising. She’s thrilled to see her girls being a part of a movement of greater visibility for Asian Americans, and says she also values the life skills they are gaining from modeling.
“I think one of the most important things is confidence and keeping yourself composed and poised in front of people,” she says. That kind of confidence is important in such a competitive industry.
The president of Wilhelmina Kids & Teens, Marlene Wallach, recounts that when her agency had an open call for models recently, more than 1,500 kids lined up around the block. “Over the course of a few weeks we may have called back 100,” she says. “Of those 100, there were five standout kids.”
And for parents who might have visions of a financial jackpot if their child should get chosen to model, the reality is far from the case. According to Parents Magazine, the standard pay rate for catalog or magazine work ranges from $50 to $75 an hour per child, although the payoff can be greater for supermodels like Emilie and Alexandra. Their mom says everything the girls are earning is going into a savings account for their college. A model way to secure their future!
For more on Emilie and Alexandra’s story, watch this month’s Asian American Life.
The all-new August edition of CUNY TV’s ASIAN AMERICAN LIFE, hosted by Ernabel Demillo from the tranquil 39-acre Queens Botanical Garden in Flushing, features reports on:
“Rabbit Days and Dumplings”
Musician Elena Moon Park is creator of the best-selling children’s album, Rabbit Days and Dumplings, featuring East Asian folk music – from Korea, Japan, China, Taiwan and Tibet – with an American Folk influence. Park, who was encouraged to record her own album by popular family performer Dan Zanes (with whom she also performs), plays a few songs on ukulele
and violin with correspondent Paul Lin, who accompanies on guitar. As a social justice advocate, Park also speaks about her work with Found Sound Nation, a group dedicated to bringing world musicians together.
Searching For Her Grandfather
Former NBC News executive Paula Williams Madison always knew that she would retire at age 58 and embark on a journey to determine what happened to her Chinese grandfather. Now the author of Finding Samuel Lowe: China, Jamaica, Harlem, she shares her extensive ancestral journey, with tantalizing clues and fortuitous connections, with correspondent Mike Gilliam. Madison’s family foundation has endowed The Nell Lowe Williams Library, in honor of her Chinese-Jamaican mother, at Cardinal Spellman High School in the Bronx, where her interview takes place.
9-Man Volleyball
Nine-man volleyball, traditionally played by Chinese immigrants in the U.S. and Canada, allows only males, six of whom have to be 100% Chinese. Filmmaker Ursula Liang, whose 2014 documentary 9-Man brought renewed attention to the sport, tells Ernabel Demillo that the game is rougher and quicker than traditional volleyball, “With a lot more swagger. It’s super hypermasculine.” This coming Labor Day, the National 9-Man Volleyball Tournament will be played in Chinatown, with descendants of former residents returning to their roots.
