Being an online model isn’t the easiest job in the world, no matter what people would believe. The hours are long, and any kind of success is uncertain, and it doesn’t help that the field is getting more crowded by the day. New online models have a lot to get used to in terms of managing the scheduling and the business end of it. That doesn’t take care of the self-image issues, however.
Katiana Kay knows all about it. She’s been an online model for months, but it didn’t take her long before she realized how the industry could influence the people within it, as well as the audiences. That’s why she wants to warn new models and help them find a way to deal with it.
Online Modeling and Self-Image
Technology has brought online models and their content into the pockets of every person with a smartphone. Audiences are never more than a few clicks away from images of beautiful people at stunning locations, with perfect smiles and tans and no blemishes on their skin whatsoever.
The problem with them is that these photos don’t represent an accurate depiction of the people in them. It’s not that they’re not real; they’re just a little touched up. Images are routinely manipulated in this way to remove any trace of imperfection and to make the models appear even more gorgeous than they already are.
What’s even worse is that all of this is happening on social networks, places where one can find mostly regular people, not models. However, there are thousands of perfect people there, looking from the screen as if they’re asking the audience why they aren’t as pretty and why they aren’t leading such a perfect life.
Models Have It Bad, Too
This type of effect on the audience is well documented, but Katiana would like new models to know that they, too, are susceptible to suffering from it. The fact that they’ve been to photoshoots and seen how much labor it takes to get a good photo and then edit it until it’s great doesn’t matter a bit; models will compare themselves with other models they see as more attractive.
To make matters worse, they’ll be judged by the public at the same time. It could be easy to dismiss this factor as just something that goes with the territory when someone’s a model. However, the scale and the access people have to online models is what’s scary. One bad photo, and there can be thousands of comments saying hurtful things about the model. “Most people are not cut out for it,” Katiana says about the industry, “because no one is meant to be judged daily by millions of people.”
How to Deal with It
There are undoubtedly unhealthy coping methods with this inferiority complex that the industry seems to be trying to drive into people’s minds. Katiana would rather recommend that new models understand that beauty is a trait everyone has. It’s not reserved for the picture-perfect people, and it’s not stockpiled by photographers. It’s in everyone.
She’d also throw in some general advice about leaving the smartphone alone once in a while. This technology is making people disconnected, and putting it aside can give everyone a chance to spend some time connecting with the things in life they’ve forgotten, such as loved ones, nature, or themselves.
Using Your Success for Good
Katiana has been using some of her profits from her modeling and OnlyFans work to fund her newest venture, a brand by the name of Bay Smokes, which sells hemp flower and vape cartridges for milder highs when compared to weed. Her products are much less potent than THC products, and provides a relaxing experience when smoked.
For the future, Katiana plans on using the earnings from this company to start her own charity, which will focus on mental health, environmental issues, and funding education and opportunities for the underprivileged that can’t afford it themselves.
