The Look (29 page)

I
t’s the picture on the back of every magazine, the side of every bus.

A girl with a pure, oval face and tightly cropped hair sits in a bath of (fake) snakes and stares sexily into the camera. Her skin is dusted with gold and green shadow. Her expression is sheer lust. One of the snakes rests on her bare shoulders and points suggestively down toward her left boob.

You can’t actually see anything, but you can … you know … imagine.

She looks interesting. Her name is Jovana, apparently, and she’s an exciting seventeen-year-old from Serbia. She used to be known for her long, dark hair, but she’s had it cropped supershort and dyed blonde for this shoot. She’s the talk of New York. Everyone loves the look, although true fashion insiders wonder whether it was inspired by Ted Richmond, that teenager from London, who was tipped to be a top model herself one day.

No one knows what happened to Ted Richmond and no one really cares. Fashion is a fast-moving business. You come. You go. Ted was requested for
Teen Vogue
, but apparently she turned
the job down because she was on some family vacation. That’s hardly dedication. No problem, though. There are lots of girls to take her place.

Meanwhile, I have my own pictures:

I’m standing with my arm around Daisy, while Dean predictably does rabbit ears above Cally’s head. It’s the school Christmas dance and we’ve all dressed up in hot pants or flares, star-shaped sunglasses and crazy seventies Afros. Under my costume, I’m also wearing my new signature stripy socks and electric-blue Mary Janes. Actually, my legs don’t look as bad in the socks as I thought they might. Nick thinks that they’re my best feature. After my eyes and my hair and my smile, apparently. And my use of natural light.

Me and my boyfriend snogging, eyes closed, with his hands on either side of my face. Ava took that picture on her phone when we weren’t looking. We appear to have Snoopy lying across both our heads. My sister is a totally rubbish photographer. I don’t know why I keep it, really.

The cover of
i-D
magazine. Photographer: Eric Bloch. Model: Ted Richmond. Agency: Model City. My first and only cover. My hair is micro-short and color-washed rose pink for the shoot. I love it. I’m doing my warrior stare, and I look somehow tough and ethereal at the same time. Still nothing like Lily, or Linda, or Kate, or Claudia. But then, I guess every model needs her own look, and this was mine. Despite the fact that Nick hates the modeling business, he likes this picture of me because I look so strong and challenging. Although he generally prefers the pictures he takes of me, or the ones I take myself.

New Year’s Eve, at night. I’m on the beach at Polzeath with Mum and Dad, Ava and Jesse. The sky is black and it’s freezing cold. We’re all dressed up in coats and wellies and wool hats, posing for Ava’s camera — now mine (I swapped it for the Mulberry tote) — which I’ve screwed onto the new tripod I got for Christmas. We’re huddled together for warmth, trying to ignore the icy drizzle and pretend it’s surfing weather. Dad has one arm around me and the other around Mum, who’s cuddling Ava, who’s snuggling up to Jesse on her other side, while he shouts, “Work it, baby! Work it!” He’s making her laugh so much she can hardly breathe.

Everything about us is lit up from inside. After six months of chemotherapy and radiation, Ava’s test results were clear and now we can celebrate, together. She made it into the ninety percent. We’ve never felt so alive as in the cold, wet Cornish air.

I had to rush back from setting the self-timer and the flash went off too close to my moon-shaped face. I look like a blob. A carefree, happy blob.

This is my favorite picture. I’ll keep it with me forever.

When I started to research Ted’s story online, I was instantly targeted by advertisements from model “agencies” that turned out not to be agencies at all. That is why I found myself writing about scams. They exist. No joke. To help promote safe and fair practices in the American fashion industry, model Sara Ziff has even formed the Model Alliance, an organization dedicated to protecting models’ rights.

In researching Ava’s story, it was good to hear about the work of the American Cancer Society (
www.cancer.org
). They know how to help, and are looking for fund-raisers and volunteers. Could that be you?

This book is also dedicated to Elizabeth W., a fan of
Threads
who once asked me about modeling. Elizabeth — here’s my answer. It might be slightly longer than you expected, but I hope it helps.

Thank you to Caroline at Christopher Little; Barry and Rachel H. at Chicken House, who supported me all the way through; and Rachel L. and Imogen, my editors, who worked on it with me. I’ll always think of this as our book.

Then there is the yoga sisterhood: Kasia, Jen, Rebecca, and Clare. I couldn’t have done it without you and I’m sorry I was thinking about modeling disasters when I should have been concentrating on downward-facing dog.

The Reeds: Thank you for Cornwall.

The writing sisterhood: Cat, Fiona, Gillian, Kay, Keren, Keris, Luisa, Susie, and Tamsyn. You’re always there when I need you. Thank God for you.

Lara Williamson, Amanda Howard, and Kika-Rose Ridley: my fashion advisers. Thank you, all of you, for giving me your time, and telling me some seriously amazing stuff.

Celia and Felicity Pett: You know the scenes you gave me. Felicity — I seem to be thanking you in every book. You really are a
top
goddaughter.

Dr. Stephen Daw and Stephen Cox at University College Hospital. Thank you for your brilliant, succinct medical advice, just when I needed it.

And lastly, but totally not leastly, Alex, Emily, Sophie, Freddie, and Tom. Thank you for putting up with the times when I wasn’t really there, because I was busy being Ted and Ava. This is your book, too.

Sophia Bennett won first place in the second annual Chicken House/
London Times
Children’s Fiction Competition with her debut novel,
Sequins, Secrets, and Silver Linings
.
The Look
is her fourth book. She lives with her husband and children in cosmopolitan London, England. Follow her on Twitter @sophiabennett and visit her at
www.sophiabennett.com
.