TONN Model Blog

When I was 15, my schoolmate and friend, Amy Dunn, got me to go to a fashion show go-see with her in Houston. That was how my modeling career started. Five years later, Amy became the toast of the Taiwan modeling world, while I became the toast of Hong Kong’s.

She and I have a lot more in common than modeling, however. The other thing we have in common is that we are constantly judged by others based on our looks and our profession as (former) models. People look at us and assume that we don’t have a brain. They speak to us in short sentences. Once they find out we were models, their vocabularies lower even more so. Little do people know that Amy became a Columbia Law School graduate, while I graduated with Cum Laude (that means top 10% of my class btw) from one of the nation’s top liberal arts schools, and entered a doctoral program at Northeastern, and of course, launched the successful Tonn Model Management.

To this day, I fight against the prejudice and misconceptions that people have against models (and former models in my case). It’s no wonder I’m still single. When I go out on a date, the first question people ask me is, “Do you sleep with your models?”. My response is (depending on his profession), “Do you sleep with your patients/customers/clients?”.

Why should people automatically assume I sleep with models I represent?? It’s because they think anyone involved with the modeling industry also dabbles in prostitution and other forms of promiscuous sexual practices. This is the prejudice that the rest of society has on us.

Not only are we seen as high class prostitutes, but we’re also seen as inferior. I was having a conversation with the chair of my graduate department last year, and he said to me, “Oh, don’t own some agency that books models?”. I said to him, “No, I own one of the top modeling agencies in Boston. Mention my name in the industry, and everyone will know who you’re talking about.”.

I wouldn’t say something like, “Oh, don’t you run some little graduate department at some university in Boston?”. So, why would he belittle what I do?? Again, the answer is simple. Society simply does not value what we do.

The final example that I will give you is the reaction I get from model-wonnabes each time I hold a modeling competition. I hold these competitions each year to recruit some of New England’s best raw models. However, about 80% of the people who respond to our open calls turn out to question the legitimacy of what we do.

The women get offended when we tell them their measurements are too large. The men feel violated when we ask them to take their shirts off for polaroids. Unfortunately, as all professional models know, these are standard practices within the industry. If a prospective model is offended by these requests, they have no business being a model. Clients will inevitably ask these things of you, and tell you the honest truth about your looks and measurements.

I wonder if they would feel just as offended if a school tells them their SAT scores were too low; or that they weren’t ‘right’ for a particular fraternity or sorority? The answer is no. It is because society does not feel that the modeling industry is a legitimate one (even though it’s a multi-billion dollar industry). They do not feel that it and those involved in it offer any contribution to society. According to them, we’re all just perverts.

So how is one to handle these misconceptions about modeling? How does one rise above the prejudice and become a respectable, professional model? My approach has always been to treat it like any other profession as it IS a profession. Show up on time. Be well spoken. Be well dressed. Be courteous and well mannered. Have intelligent things to say. And above all, become educated, whether it’s through schooling or just reading. Just educate yourself on diverse topics. Sounds cliché, but information IS power.

Even then, people may still have their misconceptions and prejudice toward you, but at least you will have the strength and intelligence to rise above them.

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