Working with Eleven Year Olds

 

plaid shirt & sweater {Old Navy} - jeans {RW&Co} - booties {Steve Madden}

It's been a long while and for that I am sorry! 

Things are off to a smashing start at my new job, I really couldn't be happier. A couple weeks ago, I organized a double photo shoot, which is two girls in the morning and two girls in the afternoon. While this may sound like a piece of cake to you, I can assure you that it's not. I can also assure you that I now know why my coworkers looked at me like I had fallen from the crazy tree when I suggested this plan. Anyways, they let the new girl play crazy (joke was definitely on me...) and I had two sets of eleven year olds come in and model a couple outfits each. Now, I had been around models here and there when I was in NYC but this was just a bit different. First off, these girls weren't models because we use real customers and fans of the brand as our models. Second of all, they were eleven. Each set of girls were best friends, which makes it really fun, but it also makes it challenging. Challenging in the sense that fighting over which washroom to change in and competing for best pose are normal occurrences. If you've spent any time around eleven year old girls, you may have an idea of what this double photo shoot was like. Don't get me wrong, the girls did great and we got a ton of awesome photos. But it was four straight hours of high pitched chatter, references to One Direction, and lots and lots of giggling! Besides needing an endless supply of energy, I did learn a few things throughout the day. First, never give them the choice of what to wear (and if you can tell that one girl didn't love her first outfit, make her second outfit really special). It's also quite important to keep them focused and on track - never let them look at the photos during the shoot and don't be afraid to kick mom out of the room (politely, of course!). Help them let their guards down by letting yours down too - if you want them to be goofy, you better be goofy yourself! And last but certainly not least, brush up on your tween pop culture because once they tell you they don't listen to One Direction, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry or The Biebs, you will have NOTHING. Nada. Nilch.

As crazy as having back to back photo shoots was, they were a ton of fun...so fun that I'm having another one on Friday! (only a single one though....I did learn from my crazy)

j.