Style Evaluation

As mentioned, we received the results of the style evaluation.  They love her hair and she is to leave it alone.  She's mostly okay with that but keeps having bouts of wanting to hack it off.  It's kind of nice to throw the style team under the bus on that one and just avoid a fight.  Nope, sorry.  They said you can't.  You have to obey.  So go brush it for pete's sake!

They also said for her to leave her brows alone.  It wouldn't have occurred to me that we should mess with them, but they reminded us that she is a kid and her brows are fine.  I guess maybe they've had issues with moms thinking their kids are bushy and plucking too much?  More of a toddlers and tiaras thing than an AMTC thing, I'm thinking.

Face and skin are good, keep drinking lots of water and use a moisturizer and sunscreen.  Only chapstick if needed.

Body- I love this.  Copying directly:

Good. Your body is a temple! Stay active and make healthy eating choices. Take this as an opportunity to substitute junk food with healthy alternatives, like rice cakes instead of chips and trail mix instead of skittles. Those things are fine every now and then, but take care of your temple.

 She's so like me.  I remember being CONSTANTLY hungry as a kid and wanting to snack all the time, and obsessing over junk food.  Hello, cans of chocolate frosting hidden under my bed... I'd love for her to avoid ending up overweight like me.  This is great advice from an outside source rather than her crazy mother.  :)

So then there is a ton of information about the clothes.  They gave links to four or five of the articles online that I need to go read.  There's a complete packing list there.  From what I gather so far, they don't want you to show up to the photo shoot with outfits in mind.  They want you to bring multiple choices for layering and lots of accessories and they will put together the looks they want when you get there.  I like that.  I also like that they give you some specific ideas, with pictures.  I haven't shopped at some of these stores before- have y'all?  Seems like a good list of choices and not too crazy expensive.

Stores for Inspiration

Our style team loves these stores. We want you to be economical, use what you have, borrow, thrift shop and try to bring good new options to the photo shoot. Here are stores we love. Look at these styles and try to duplicate. 

GAP

Forever 21 Girls

JCrew

Zara Kids

H&M

Target

Then they sent a bunch of pictures of individual clothes, along with a girl about G's age and hair color modeling some of the looks.  Extremely helpful.   I also love "IF YOU DON'T THINK THESE ITEMS ARE COOL, WE DON'T CARE!"  :)  There's an article about etiquette and being cheerful no matter what the photographers put you in, and how having a prima donna attitude is so detrimental to your career.  Again, great advice from someone NOT mom.


For Shoeaddict and any other clothes-minded folk, here is the packing list just for "Look One".  She has to have two looks, and bring multiple options for each.  (The other one is supposed to be shades of blue, purple, and green.)  Also she's supposed to bring more outfits that she's thinking of to wear for her showcases at Shine so the team can approve or veto.  Clearly this is going to require the most shopping and planning of any event I've ever attended, including my wedding.  Honestly it's a little daunting... but maybe this will actually get you out here for a visit, if I lure you with shopping, Shoe?


Denim Bottoms:

• Dark Denim Only.
• Skirts, pants, shorts, skinny jeans- bring a variety.
• Dresses in black or denim are great too. Daytime dresses.
• ONLY well fitted denim will be used. Leave your faded & baggy clothes at home. Men, please downsize in whatever denim you normally wear (unless you avidly study men’s fashion and are an expert at fit). If anyone does not have the right fitted options, we may ask you to run to the closest Target which will delay your shoot.
• Important to bring lots of options.

Black Bottoms:

• Black Only.
• Skirts, pants, shorts, skinny jeans- bring a variety.
• Dresses in black or denim are great too. Daytime dresses.
• ONLY well fitted options will be used. Leave your baggy clothes at home. Men, please downsize in whatever pants you normally wear (unless you avidly study men’s fashion).
• Important to bring lots of options.

Assorted Tops:

• Black & Grey Only.
• Cool fitted t-shirts, v necks, tank tops, button ups, sweaters, blouses, etc.
• Important to bring lots of options.

Layering Options:

• Black, Demin & Grey Only.
• Vests, denim jackets, blazers, motorcycle jackets, hoodies, cardigans, etc.
• These layers will make your look & character style!
• Important to bring lots of options.

So.  There you have it.  Every time I think I'm starting to get a handle on the scope of this thing, I realize we're just scratching the surface.  She's also got her monologue written and approved now, and is working on memorizing and performing it for camera so we can send it to the acting coaches for critique.

Auditions!

So we had kind of a crazy weekend.  There's this billboard on the main street we travel a lot advertising Actors, Models, and Talent for Christ.  Gilly has pestered me for a good year or so about looking into it, and I really just kept blowing it off.  After all, this is the girl who would burst into tears if you smiled real big and clapped your hands like you might be proud of her.  We have pictorial evidence of such.

And it wasn't just when she was a baby.  This was a birthday party she went to when she was around 3 1/2 when we were proud that she went down the big slide alone...

So yeah, she's a pretty girl and people tell her all the time that she should model, but I just didn't really think she wanted to do it.  Even if her pictures come out like this, there's more to it than that...

But anyway.  A couple weeks ago she finally wore me down, and remembered about it when we were actually home and not just driving by the sign.  MOM!  Look that place up right now!  I really want to do it!  And they have open auditions in our area twice a year, one of which was coming up in two weeks.  So we registered.  And I'm still telling her, it's a cattle call!  There will be a million people there and probably nothing will happen from this!  Don't get your hopes up!

Saturday we went.  I had no idea what to expect.  I was super nervous, and not sure how seriously to take this agency or its people or its claims.  But oh look- Megan Fox started here, and so did the girl who plays in the American Girl movie Gilly loves.  So did that adorable Mathai on the Voice this season, and a bunch of American Idol people, and the little girl on We Bought a Zoo.  The guy talked to us for almost an hour and a half and I really felt like he was totally upfront about the cost (HUGE) and the commitment and their mission and focus.  He talked about how the most important thing we can do as parents is to help our kids find God's calling on their lives, and how this isn't it for everybody.  He's told people they should only sing in the shower, and that God needs dentists to spread His word too.  That made me laugh.  But I came away from it feeling really uplifted and peaceful.  He said that if we received a callback, he didn't want to hear that we were so happy because we wanted this so badly.  He wanted to hear that we prayed about it as a family, and what did God tell us?  Is the timing right?  Are we peaceful?  And to me that said a lot about them not wanting to just take our money.  They gave us lots of opportunities to NOT do this, and really stressed the whole family being on the same page, with God, feeling right about this.  Not to say there aren't obstacles, he tells us, we love obstacles, but there must be peace.  And be sure, because this is too expensive and time consuming to be a hobby.  This is the launch of a possible career.

Then she auditioned.  She walked the runway and spoke to Philipa Booyens about her calling and she sounded so poised.  They gave her a commercial to cold read and she did well.  Philipa was all, you're only EIGHT?  She walked out of there going, Mama, I got this.  They're gonna call me back.  Miss Philipa liked me.  I could tell.  And I kept saying, baby, there were 200 people in that room.  Don't get your hopes up...

They called back.  9:00 Sunday morning right as we were leaving for church.  I'd read through all the material, including the amount of money we'd be required to come up with for Shine, but I hadn't had a chance to really talk it through with hubby, so I asked them to call back in a couple hours for our decision. 

Have y'all met my husband?  He is a researcher.  He is cautious, a studier, and kind of cynical when it comes to things sometimes.  He worries about scams.  He worries about his daughter getting in over her head.  He worries about giving control of big things in his life over to God.  And he looked at me in the car on the way to church, and he said, "I'm scared.  Let's go for it!"

And that right there, folks?  That was God.  All God.

So we spent three more hours yesterday afternoon at AMTC.  We signed her up for the Bridge program to train for Shine, and we're slated to be at the January 2013 convention in Orlando.  She's got a modeling class scheduled for next Thursday.  She did improv and cold read and more runway walking.  She received instruction about how much water and junk food and sleep she should get.  She is not allowed to cut her hair without first receiving advice from her STYLE TEAM.  My eight year old has a style team.  We are to send them pictures in the next three days so they can evaluate her.  She must always wear sunscreen.

She is loving this.  She is soaking it up.  She is people watching and practicing accents and writing mini monologues today.  She is obeying every nutrition command Miss Philipa gives her.

 And we're fundraising like crazy.  CRAZY.  I'm going to be asking everybody who's ever met our family to love on us and send us something.  If you have any cool ideas I want 'em.  I'd love to have something to raffle off, like anybody who donates five bucks or more has a chance to win .... something.  Got something to donate?  Got cash?  We'll take it.  Hubby looked at me last night and goes, "We just bought a BMW."  The monthly payments to prepare for the convention are pretty similar to that, actually.  ACK.

But you know, I feel absolutely RIGHT that this is what we're supposed to be doing right now.  Even if she goes nowhere with this, just has a great time and doesn't get contracts at Shine (although they say they have an 87% success rate), I feel so great.  She's so empowered right now, but not cocky at all.  She's excited and still talking about the opportunity to show Jesus to people.  And we're working on giving finances to God and trusting and obeying, and that's so new and so important for us that I don't have any reservations.  This journey to Shine is crucial for our family, no matter what happens afterwards.