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Throw a Supermodel Bash
By Kendeyl Johansen
Looking for a new party idea? Consider a Supermodel Bash, where your daughter and her friends can strut their stuff on a runway, pose for cover shots, sip faux champagne and decorate picture frames as mementos! If you keep the focus on fun, not body image, it's sure to be a confidence booster, say parents who have tried it.
"A modeling party is harmless as long as the goal is having fun," says Salt Lake City mom, Linda Mattson. "My daughter, Tawni, and her friends had a blast at their supermodel party. The girls raved about dressing up and posing with friends!"
Penny Lane, vice president of Penway Productions and Modeling Parties in Chicago, Ill., agrees. "To keep this type of party from focusing on body type, I make it clear that the girls are going to learn what models do to prepare for a photo in a magazine and to hold a fashion show," Lane says. "They will become models for a day and have fun."
Lane encourages the girls to support each other with applause and to help each other pick out clothes, accessories and makeup. The girls act as a team, says Lane, lending and borrowing items as needed for the show's success.
"Girls can be overweight or underweight or even disabled -- notice the amount of wheelchairs, crutches and casts in photos in the last few years -- and their job is to concentrate on doing a good job selling the clothes, not on who comes out looking the best," she says.
Why do so many girls want to model?
"It's exciting and very glamorous," says Monica Chan, instructor for the Barbizon School of Modeling in San Francisco.p>
Like Lane, Chan says that modeling classes improve self-esteem by teaching students how to present themselves with poise and confidence. Chan offers the following tips to ensure runway success for your young supermodels:
- Smile! People are nice and they'll smile back.
