Instagram @wwtwins_jnr

While there certainly are worse jobs to do, the founder of fashionpivot.com, Innocent Kwashie, has blown the whistle on what really goes on in the modelling industry, he says it’s a hotbed of lies and dirty tricks.

This is the kind of remark I often hear about fair labor standards for models working in the industry. Modeling is a seemingly glamorous profession, and models are certainly not the people you picture when you think of bad working conditions. But wipe off the sheen and another reality emerges.

I have worked as a model for more than half a decade, and I’m the first to admit that I’ve been lucky in the industry. I have worked with some of fashion’s most talented and creative people in and outside the country. I enjoy modeling, I have no reason to speak negatively about an industry that has given me so much. And, yet, I can no longer stay silent about rampant abuses.

The modeling business today is unregulated and relies on a compliant labor force of children. Sexual abuse and systematic theft occur at the highest levels of the industry, and because models are considered to be “independent contractors”, the rule of law in terms of workplace standards does not exist. Sadly, the notion that fashion is frivolous encourages a dismissive, misogynistic attitude toward the industry’s young workers, and it is precisely this sentiment that allows the abuse of vulnerable young people to persist.

Most young ladies , are routinely ask to do topless shoots and pose seductively. To this day, in an industry dominated by minors, there is no policy of informed consent for jobs involving full or partial nudity. A recent survey  I made in the Ghanaian fashion industry shows that 86.8% of models have been asked to pose nude at a casting or job without advance notice.Sexual abuse is a pervasive problem.

What is worse, in an industry where the majority of models start their careers before age 16, most working unchaperoned and far from home, the incentive to say nothing in order to keep your job creates an unconscionable environment of coercion.

Lack of financial transparency is also a significant problem.  As a model, simply getting paid can be a major issue, and, of the models who achieve a coveted spot walking in fashion week, many, in fact, are never paid at all; instead, working for free or for clothes. Needless to say, a tank top doesn’t pay the rent.

Our glossy industry often provokes superficial criticism of models’ weight and body image, but the fact is that most models’ clout in their workplace is as tiny as their size-zero frames. It is time to delve beneath the surface and consider models’ concerns from a labor and public health standpoint. Photographs of models pervade our culture, and we cannot promote healthy images without taking steps to protect the faces of this business. This effort starts with giving the faces of this business a voice. Correcting these abuses starts with seeing models through a different lens: not as dehumanized images, but as human beings who deserve the same rights and protections as all workers.

“If people really understood what goes on behind the glamour of the industry, they would be mortified,”

Tell Us Your Experience As A  Model In the Comment Box !!!