Twilight's Christian Serratos For PETA

Nineteen year-old Twilight star Christian Serratos is the newest celebrity to strip for PETA's naked, err, Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur campaign. To date, she is the youngest vegetarian celebrity to pose nude for PETA in its opposition to the fur industry.


Like a scene from The Twilight Saga, Christian Serratos' naked pictorial takes place in what appears to be a dark, misty forest. There's blood on the ground where she stood and on the base of the tree that she was leaning on.

"I've always been opposed to slaughtering, eating, wearing carcass," says the teen star.

Christian Serratos now joins the likes of Charlize Theron and Eva Mendes in the campaign against using animals for fur. Like them, her ad for PETA is a steamy one. If it's not for the bold texts and the Twilight theme, one would think it's a teaser for an erotic film.

Good thing Twilight has its power over tweens. PETA might soon influence many young people by incorporating Twilight in its campaigns.

French Magazines Say No To Photoshop Labeling!

In France, around 50 politicians are backing a proposed law that requires glossy magazines and other image businesses to label retouched photos of models and celebrities. This action hopes to fight eating disorders and body-image issues especially among young women.


If passed, the law would affect wide range of image businesses including advertising, press photographs, political campaigns, art photography, and images on packaging.

Naturally, people in the image industry are opposing the proposed photoshop regulations. They argue that retouching is always part of the artistic interpretation.

According to Tony Chambers, editor-in-chief of Wallpaper and former art director of British GQ magazine, "The camera has always lied and always will. These things should always be taken with a pinch of salt. Fantasy and artistic interpretation are core ingredients in fashion, advertising and art photography."

Marc Ascoli, art director for various high-fashion campaigns, believes that manipulation of images cannot be avoided in any commercial presentation:

"It's so arbitrary. It's clear that there have been abuses. Sometimes heads are completely transformed. They'll change the model's eye color and hair. Sometimes I have the impression I'm looking at a window dummy. But there is such a global commercial pressure for perfection."

With or without photoshop, body-image issues prevail among humans, not just young women. True that a retouched image of a model on a magazine cover may influence a young girl's way of presenting herself, but it is not the core culprit for eating disorder. Girls are not stupid to just stare at a retouched model and believe it as the real thing. Just because one is young does not follow that one is naive.

If there's a phenomenon for eating disorder, don't you think leaders and authorities should work more on education and social awareness campaigns, not on labeling obvious photoshop images as "retouched?"

Top Model Warns Teenagers On The Downside Of The Industry

Now at 26, top Scottish model Lauren Tempany is already an experienced catwalk diva. She has been in the modeling industry for 12 years; has modeled for top designers like Alexander McQueen and Giles Deacon, has been featured in Vogue and Harper's Bazaar (then Harpers and Queen), has shared a catwalk with Kate Moss, and has hung out with Agyness Deyn and Alexa Chung.


But just like every successful models in the industry, Lauren Tempany has also met hardships especially when she was just starting with her career.

She was only 14 years old when discovered from a Clothes Show roadshow in 1997 and had three top modeling agencies fighting over her. Her first modeling job was for a perfume aimed at the teenage market.

One of Lauren Tempany's greatest challenge as a struggling model included dealing with the media and the stalkers. The Scottish model shared that she had been too candid with the media interviews that accompanied her early model shoots, not realizing that her words would come to haunt her back — she became a victim of a stalker. The model revealed her early struggles in an interview with Edinburgh newspaper The Evening News:

"Some of the early interviews I did revealed a bit too much about my home and family life, and someone was able to trace where I lived and began making loads of dodgy phone calls. We had to change all of our phone numbers. I've always tended to just blurt things out when I'm talking to people without realizing some of it might make it into the papers, but I've now learned to be a bit more careful."

Though being careful is Lauren Tempany's advice for models especially for those who are just starting out, she also believes that there is nothing endemically wrong in the modeling industry and becoming a model at 14 does not necessarily mean that one becomes a target of stalking.

"When I was first approached at the age of 14 my family were a bit dubious, but they did their research and discovered they were all legitimate agencies. However, I would advise aspiring young models to only sign for big modeling agencies because it's tough getting jobs. The smaller agencies don't get a look in and there are some people who are out to exploit you, but get nasty people in all professions though, not just modeling."

Prior to Lauren Tempany's telling of the struggles she encountered in the industry, there have been other models who stepped out to talk about the downside of modeling including 70s star Robyn Peterson and model-turned-filmmaker Zara Ziff. Recently, Indian-born fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander has been sentenced to a minimum of 59 years in US prison for sexually assaulting aspiring models as young as 14. The designer is known to dress a number of celebrities including Paris Hilton and Mary J Blige.

Warned of the downside of her profession, Lauren Tempany still finds modeling as a noble career. Though there are few obsessives along the way, she has met many wonderful people in the industry and sure finds fun in the glamorous world she walks in. She has traveled many countries to shoot for magazines, commercials, and catalogues.


Taking pride in her modeling profession, Lauren Tempany shares, "The industry comes in for a lot of unfair criticism but I've met some fantastic people while modeling, and my experience over the last 12 years has been overwhelmingly positive."

Believing that her star will soon be outshined by younger models, Lauren Tempany also sets her plans for the future while still enjoying the glitz of her career:

"Modeling really is a young person's game. I don't really have a clear idea of where I'll go after this but I'd quite like to get into film and costume, working in the wardrobe department of movie productions, but right now I can't ever see me turning down a job. I'll probably still be doing granny catalogues when I'm 60."

Poor Teenage Girl Rises To Become A Top Model

This time Cinderella is a fashion model.


A poor teenage girl who grew up sifting through garbage bins and selling cardboard on the dirty streets of Buenos Aires rises to become a top model for the world's biggest modeling agency, Elite.

The lovely but poverty-stricken Daniela Cott, 16, was spotted two years ago by necklace designer Marina Gonzalez sifting bins in the streets of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

With the typical model height of 5 feet 10 inches tall, and a pair of emerald green eyes, the designer noticed the youngster's natural beauty through her rags and tangled hair and told her, “You should be a model.”

Alas! It was the magic word that started the glamorous transformation of the young Daniela. Her pictures was sent to an Elite agent who eventually called her in for an interview. She then joined the Argentina4s Elite Model Look competition and win the crown from 1,000 other models. It was the same competition that have launched the careers of Cindy Crawford and Gisele Bundchen.

The competition officially signed her up for Elite. And when she received her first pay cheque from a modeling job in 2006, she treated the nine members of her family to an “eat you can” restaurant buffet.

Who would have thought that the dirty teenage girl who merely lived with her family among 10,000 “cartoneros” in Buenos Aires to sift through bins and households for cardboard and used cans and bottles would become a fashion model? Not even Daniela herself.

“I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would one day become a model. I started working as a cartonera when I was 13 because my family had no other choice. I worked every day after school from 6pm to 10pm. Between me and all my family we earned around 50 pounds a week. The work was very tough, and I did it every day for 18 months. We went through people's rubbish looking for cardboard, newspapers or glass bottles to sell to the recycling plant for a few pence. It was a dirty job, and I didn't like it, but I did it to help my family. After working at night, every morning I had to get up for school. One day when I was working I met a woman called Marina, who told me 'You're so beautiful, you should be a model.' She persuaded me to pose for some photographs, and sent them off to an agent. Everything took off from there.”

But modeling did not also come naturally for the Latina beauty. When she was entered into the modeling competition, she could not walk on high heels and had to spend six months mastering the catwalk ramp. Her rough hands also had to undergo lengthy treatment to remove the calluses, cuts, and scars.

Looking back, Daniela proudly shared, “When they entered me into the Elite competition I thought there was no way I could win it. I burst into tears when I won. It was the greatest moment of my life. Now my career is starting to take off. I love posing for photographs and being on the catwalk. I have traveled to Europe, working in Paris, Milan and Madrid, something I never, ever dreamed would be possible.”

Like any triumphant Cinderellas, the lovely Daniela now has her humanitarian aspirations: “Now I want to use my career to highlight the problems of the cartoneros living in Buenos Aires. Working as a cartonera helped me, because it gave me a strong character and a determination, and taught me never to be afraid of anything.”


And as to the challenges of modeling, the once poor teenage girl who rises to the top of the modeling world and now lives the glamorous life of fashion modeling has this realization:

“I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. The modeling work hasn't been easy. I used to say that modeling on a catwalk or posing for photographs couldn't be very difficult. Now I realize it is difficult, but not as hard as collecting rubbish.”