Posted September 15, 2014
Annika Backes is 16 years old from Denver, Colorado and is currently living in Paris, France modeling. She was scouted a year ago in the Cherry Creek Mall and has since been to South Korea, Japan, Miami, Florida and now Paris.
I’m so grateful that I have this opportunity and that my parents are willing to support me! I model for Elite Model Management and my average day is CRAZY. I go to about 5-10 castings a day so I’m running all over Paris trying to make it to each casting in time. Right now in Paris it is fashion week so I have to go to all those castings and on top of it do shows which usually takes 4-5 hours.
Backstage in a fashion show is one of the craziest things you will see. First you get your hair done, then you go to makeup, and then you get dressed. Sounds easy right? It’s not; all around you there are photographers, hair stylists, makeup artists, and film crews all wanting your attention and usually it’s in a very small space. However, I’m not going to lie, its pretty exciting, and it makes you feel like a celebrity. Personally though, I prefer photo shoots because they are a lot less hectic.
I think my favorite part about the job is being able to travel around the world, it’s amazing the things I’ve been able to do and see that I would never be able to experience if I was at home. It does come at a cost though. For one thing it is really difficult to keep up on school work because you have to be working, or at least ready to work at any hour of the day. You can get a call from the agency to go to a casting at anytime! That’s where online school has been really helpful.
Also, you have to have a really tough skin to be in this business. Every day you are faced with disappointment – you’re too short or too tall, too fat or too skinny, too pale or too tan, and it is really hard to hear that all the time, but that’s the job! You take the good with the bad! So if I have any advice for teenagers looking to get into modeling it’s important to really know who you are and not to change. You have to be true to your self and have a lot of confidence to do this job. It’s not easy and it’s not as glamorous as you may think, but you do get so much out of it. I have fun every single day because this is what I want to do and when it’s not anymore, I will stop, you can’t change who you are for anything and that’s what everyone should remember, especially kids looking to get into this industry.