It just seems that no matter where I turn, there is a height requirement. LOL. While I am totally aware and accepting—for the most part—that there will always be a height requirement for certain types of modeling, it’s when it appears unnecessary that I become concerned.
I received an email for a casting that was looking for spokesmodels for their Internet show that talks about beauty, fitness, fashion, entertainment, etc. Apparently they are running a spokesmodel contest and all you have to do is signup, activate your account, upload photos, and a short bio and from there, the judges will chose a winner. I believe it’s a recurring contest so it happens pretty often.
The winner gets a $10,000 contract with the company and is guaranteed $5,000 in appearances in various promotion spots ranging from photoshoots to website work and appearances on the Internet show.
Hmmm…that seemed right up my alley! So I signed up, activated the link, entered my information and was just about to upload my images when a little voice told me to read the contest rules. To my utter disgust, there was actually a height requirement! It said that models have to be at least 5’7” to enter the contest.
Yeah, I know, it’s their company, their contest, their rules. BUT I found the height requirement unfair when they stated that they were opening the contest to all fashion, editorial, swimwear and lingerie models. Okay, for fashion and editorial I am well aware that they’re supposed to be tall but swimwear and lingerie? I don’t think so! In those two categories of modeling, the height requirements are almost always open.
I didn’t want to lie about my height and get caught up later on. No matter the turnout, I wouldn’t need that kind of publicity. Anyways, I decided to contact the company and just mention my thoughts. So I emailed them and professionally stated that I was disappointed that because of my height I was ineligible for a contest that I knew I stood a good chance at winning. I also made sure to mention that there are typically no height requirements for swimwear and lingerie models and that such a requirement didn’t seem necessary for the type of contest they were running. Additionally, I stated that as a professional model it was because of unnecessary height barriers that it becomes more challenging to find positive and adequate exposure. Near the end I added in that hopefully they would start to include shorter models in their future events and that I was sure they would not be disappointed with the turnout.
Will they respond? Who knows. If they do, great. If not, life goes on. Some of you may think I’m whining but I believe in letting people know when something just doesn’t make much sense. Why exclude a vast majority of professional models just because they’re lacking a few inches? This isn’t for an agency nor are we trying to compete to walk in a fashion show…so why the height barrier?
Who knows what’ll happen—if anything happens at all—but maybe one of these days I, and many others, will be able to showcase our talent in a modeling contest without worrying if we’re tall enough to make the cut.
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