This page was written in response to the growing number of Asian-American women seeking to become models but with otherwise indeterminate goals. There is an entire industry built around building up these women's hopes then having them model and attend promotional events for little or no compensation. There are many people who have grown wealthy playing on the hopes and aspirations of these women and few have delivered anything in return. Very few Asian models spend more than a year or two in the business and only a small fraction leave with anything to show for it but some nice pictures.

The author of this page acknowledges that this is often a result of the models own choices but writes in hope that some models will at least be able to make these choices knowing there are other options.

Few models drop out of the business because they don't have the "look". The vast majority drop out because of bad decisions brought on by bad management and bad advice. Some this advice comes from well meaning friends, spouses, fans or even other models. Often this advice comes from photographers and webmasters with obvious ulterior motives. Many of these people are very nice and care a great deal about the models in question. They mean well but do a disservice to the model by offering advice they are really not qualified to give. They often have the best of intentions. Unfortunately many of them simply do not have the requisite knowledge.

With that in mind I offer the following six suggestions:

There is nothing wrong with deciding simply to model for fee because you enjoy the work and do not want the hassle and heavy workload of trying to become a successful independent model. While the payoff is much, much greater it can take up to a year before an independent model earns as much as a fee model and during that time she will have to work many times harder.

Do not let any of this discourage you from pursuing modeling. If approached carefully it is a great deal of fun and has the potential to be extremely lucrative. You just need to enter into it with realistic goals and realistic plan to achieve them based on a proven method.