Thread by @celaiwest1, Today, I'm creating a thread to bring awareness to unfair, racist or [...]

Today, I'm creating a thread to bring awareness to unfair, racist or discrimatory treatment while working on set. These are my personal experiences...
#myblackmodellife #modelsforchangenow

These are not the ONLY things I've experienced on set, these just all happen to have been from the SAME HAIRSTYLIST while I was working for different companies.

It all starts when I was 5 and I booked my very first gig. Every day I arrived on set, there was a new hairstylist so I started seeing how NOONE could do my hair right away with this one specific company.

I also booked another company at the same time and I ALWAYS had the most AMAZING hairstylists. Every. Single. Time. I got several hairstyles in a day and they don't make me feel like my hair is a problem.

Mom talks to my agent and tells her about the problem. My agent tells mom she can offer to help them do my hair but if they say no, mom has to let them do it. I'm stuck.

So mom doesn't know what to do and thinks maybe it would be easier for them if my hair wasn't so bulky. And she makes a decision she will always regret. She put a slight texturizer on my hair

I show up to set with my hair blow dried out and fluffy curls. It's bouncing and blowing in the wind and definitely longer.

Mom notices that they bobby pinned the back of my hair up so it wasn't hanging too long. I think nothing of it until the images drop. They used the blur tool to give me an afro

So, you mean to say you want it to LOOK kinky but you don't want to style kinky hair? I'm soooo confused.

Mom is really starting to regret my texturizer and my hair is slowly starting to break off but luckily it grows fast. Whew!

At 7, mom is trying to get me signed in LA and all the agents are acting like I have the plague.

A major Holywood agent AND a manager ended up telling us "She needs to trim it back" like if my hair was a bush.

One day we are introduced to a Black owned agency and asked for feedback on our portfolio. The round hair wasn't working for us, apparently...

She told mom to do a crochet style, take away the bulk and make it 2" longer in the back and do new headshots. Done.

All of a sudden, I'm getting booked! Walmart, Target, Disney... I'm the leading lady of Willie Williams music video. You know, the original that was remixed to "mi gente" with J. Balvin and Beyoncé. Yup...

So we decided to take my crochet out and the bookings dried up like raisins. IMMEDIATELY.

Casting directors are now making excuses for not wanting to book me. I wasn't good enough anymore. My skills I once had are now miraculously gone. Just vanished. Poof and gone.

I start focusing more on runway, where i can wear my natural hair and I started to notice that I'm the ONLY Black girl in every line up.

I'm 9 and my first runway video goes viral. As soon as I celebrate, the designer messages mom and said this is a bad look for her brand. I get kicked off the runway team and the other girl (in this video) stays

But that's OK because just 2 hours later, at age 9, I walked in an all adult line up for the very first time which literally changed the entire course of my career.

Now, we decided to start making hair tutorials to show how versatile our hair is. People start asking me to straighten my hair...so I show them

And BOOM! 4 viral hair tutorials.

At 9, I book one of the same companies again who I used to have a problem with but I'm thinking things have changed in 4 years. Nope.

I show up on set and mom takes out my fresh twists. This isn't good enough so the hairstylist, Rebecca Taff, decides to spiral curl my entire head.

The art director and other models are waiting for her to finish.

And the art director keeps asking how much longer. I'm so embarrassed.

She finally finishes and I'm sent to wardrobe. For some reason, they didn't have my shoes in my size so they put on a pair that's 1.5 sizes too small and tell me to push thru

5 minutes later, MY TOES ARE MAD and the art director keeps reminding me to smile

A couple weeks later, they book me again. I walk in and see Rebecca. Mom offers to help but I think she's still mad at me from last time. She says no

I wear 10 outfits and she refuses to smooth my hair after putting on shirts and hoodie. She just sends me straight to set looking like homegirl from H&M

When mom reminds her, she puts a WATER BASED cream on my edges. Now I look like homegirl from jcrew

I never got booked again from that company.

So I finally land a gig with a company I've always wanted to work with. This is pretty major. And they can actually do my hair!!!

Until the day we walk in and see Rebecca Taff again.

Mom is READY! She makes sure she brings ALL my hair and makeup stuff to set JUST IN CASE

mom had been applying a tiny bit of my foundation before we arrive so all they need to do is add a blush and lip balm.

Rebecca gets mad and makes we wipe it all off and decides I'm not gonna get ANY makeup now.

She AGAIN applies a WATER BASED cream to my hair and the whole thing frizzes up.

I forgot to mention how she let out a loud sigh as soon as I sat down in her chair.

Mom is mortified. The art director doesn't like my hair so he has someone ask mom to leave the area and stay in the parent waiting area. She can see but can't hear what's happening.

I ended up getting sent home

I'm now 10 and I've decided I'm not changing my hair to make people happy. I don't even want to blow dry my hair out anymore. I want to wear it full shrinkage and all.

I go to NYFW and ask mom if I can wear my hair exactly how it grows out of my scalp on the runway. That video goes viral

After the show, mom asked why I wanted to wear my hair shrunken. This is the first time I tell her all the things I was going thru on set. She was devastated

AND really upset

Mom wanted me to speak out about it but she also knew how I'd probably get blacklisted if I did. The choice was mine.

So I told her I'd rather be honest and not work than to pretend it didn't happen. So I spoke out...

So here I am, not working but I'm building my own table on my own terms and there's no amount of money worth me changing who I am for.

Tee: https://www.thechattychick.com/search?q=jealous&type=product

I also noticed they cast by roles. Bi-racial girls can have long hair but Black girls can't, apparently

I found this out when I was booked by a major company and when I walked off set, mom noticed all my hair was bobby pinned to my scalp. So my big hair was turned to a small fro

And let's not forget the MANY times I participated in group shoots and stuck out like a sore thumb

One time during a group shoot, everyone else was dressed up like Easter Sunday and I was stuck in a bathing suit

A photog had been asking to shoot for awhile so mom agrees. She wants to use my platform of about 25k followers to "reinvent" herself with our shoot.

She has a dress custom made for me then decides she likes a diff model better and gives it to her. No biggie but now I'm stuck in the WORSE outfit for the shoot

After the shoot, mom says "I'm not posting that mess on your social media"

ALMOST A YEAR LATER on the day she finds out I booked Disney, she drops the most horrible image of me that looks like an out-take.

Mom blocked her so quick so she couldn't tag me in that mess.

There was a popular photog who mom was looking at booking. She sent him and email and they began chatting back and forth

Mom noticed he didn't have NOT ONE SINGLE BLACK MODEL on his page but figured maybe none of us booked him before

After chatting for about 30 min, mom sends him a pic of me so he could tell her his vision for the shoot. It does silent...

Despite following up with him a couple days later HE NEVER EVER RESPONDED BACK.

Did another group shoot and while all the girls had on these beautiful flowy dresses, I wore a school girl dress

Honorable mentions to all the photogs who love to NEVER release my pics or want to prove I can take a bad picture.

If mom sees that you can't shoot, style, or treat me JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, SHE WILL NOT POST YOUR WORK!

Another honorable mention is when mom decided to look into me shooting with Alex Kruk only to find out she blocked me. I'm willing to bet her timeline looks a LOT like Robert Beczarski's

But can we get into agencies? Because we all love the agencies who want to sign you only as an ornament on their roster with no intention of ever actually USING you.

I was always told the NY market was more "my market" as opposed to the LA market since they embraced natural hair. I was excited!

So when this major NY agency reached out via IG DM, we knew we wanted to look into it

We were told it was OPTIONAL to do a shoot with one of their photogs but since we lived so far, we needed to pay to be listed on their website since we could not attend castings in person.

We had already spoken to 2 other NY agencies and they too said we need to pay to be listed on their site so this wasn't the first time we heard this.

About 2 years go by and nothing so mom tries to call the agent to see what we can do to better position me for the market. No response.

The agency finally responds months later and says we need to pay $1500 to shoot with their photog before they can submit us to clients.

This MAJOR agency is charging kids almost $600 to be listed on their site AND making it mandatory to shoot with their photog for $1500.

Mom said....

Talia also wasn't happy that mom shared our experience with a concerned parent who was also contacted, so I got dropped from the @NYMMG roster...

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