Throughout Primary and Secondary school, I was always very active in social activities,from dancing to acting and even when we would have Beauty Pageants. In my Junior year (jss1) I was princess of my House in my schools annual Inter- house sport competition,In my senior year (ss1) I was leading my march past for my House in the Inter-house sports and also competed and won several awards for sports ,and lastly, in my ss2 I was chosen as Queen amongst four others for my school. All these where for me were signs to carry on further my dreams. Once I had graduated from Secondary school and move to the UK Four and a half years ago just before I got into university I decided that apart for schooling I was going to pursue my dreams of becoming a super star and making my self a brand. One day I saw an advert in the papers for a Talent search. I took it to my friends and boyfriend and they all encouraged me to audition. My dear friend Ohita helped me get my hair done and my boyfriend followed me for support .I remember not being able to sleep the night before, but found that al my worrying was for nothing as when I got there, I was immediately picked to my greatest surprise. We had a mini photo session, I was a bit nervous but too happy on the inside. After everything I was told I had to pay a sum of £60 to be fully registered with the agency which I did (err BIGGEST mistake ever).They sent me my pictures and that was the last I heard from them .(guess you know what that means )…
RULE 1:
A truly interested agent will NEVER ask you for money.
They will never suggest to you that you need to spend money to make money. If an agent sees real potential in you that is where they will make their money, by taking a reasonable cut of the work that they get for you (usually no more than 15%). Legitimate modeling agencies do not have handling fees, signing fees, agency fees (outside of their cut of work done as noted above) or any other kind of up front before-you-can-be-signed fee...
Oh well! I was not going to let that stop me, soooo moving on. One summer afternoon just as I was walking into the reception of college, a woman who worked there asked me if I was into modeling. I responded saying I was trying to do it professionally and she said she knew someone who runs an agency and can help me further my career. I was thinking to myself “hmmnn another door has opened” wait until you read the twist... Funny now but wasn’t so funny back then… so she gave me a number which again I took to my friends and boyfriend and as usual much support and love was given. I called, and the gentleman at the agency requested to see some pictures, which I immediately organized with my friends and sent, he was impressed. As a result, I went to London to meet with my new agent fingers crossed, got signed and was immediately booked in for a fashion show. I thought to myself hmmmn this one is finally for real and I am now on my way to becoming a star. I participated in a fashion show for Miss Congo UK. I was so happy meeting with other girls like me, I even invited my parents who were pleased and happy for me, furthermore I was approached by the organizers for Miss Malaika to participate! OH MY GOD!!! It didn’t seem real. I was having the time of my life in fact at this point school was the last thing on my mind...
My agent was happy and from there I got more jobs .I am sure some of you are saying this girl must have started rolling in the cheques...hahahaha we are now getting to the twist, I wasn’t!... as my Nigerian people would say Na free… I was constantly told that was how everyone else started... its not like it hurt my pocket to transport my self back and forth after all I was still a kid receiving pocket money and not having bills or anything to pay by myself.
Now here comes the big one. I was told a huge fashion show was taking place in the Hilton by my agent and I was going to take part in it. I immediately called mum and told her but for some reason mum did not want me to go for this one, I guess even mum was thinking “please this people should stop using my daughter” or maybe it was God I do not know. I even asked him to call my mum so she can be rest assured I was in safe hands, which he did. Even my boyfriend was getting tired of all this work and no money... “ahn ahn babes this is not how it is done” he said. By this time I was thinking oh please your just jealous!! Oh well moving on… got my nails done and hair did (lol) all paid for by this wonderful agent and was invited later on for a briefing about the show w. My dear readers this was no ordinary briefing oh…lol….as I said before it is funny now but not in the least bit funny then!….He started telling me how beautiful I looked and how happy he was for me, until this beautiful talk started turning into something else. He started getting personal, trying to say we should take our professional relationship to another level, in other words he was trying to “Toast” me…. He told me to think about his proposition. I was just so heart broken and went home in tears. I understood clearly that this was the end because I knew that he wasn’t asking me, he was telling me. So went home and told mum everything and when he did not hear from me, he sent me a text saying. “There is no need to turn up for the show tomorrow as you won’t be taking part”. Now what am I to do? I constantly asked myself and was beginning to blame my self that it was my fault I should not have just said no... I was confused and finally called it quits, telling myself this would just go on and on and I do not want to wait for the worst to happen. I decided to focus on getting into university and getting a good grade for myself…. Sniff
However, I tell you, that were not the end. Soooo fast forwarding, it was the end of summer and I started University, a big girl now, studying Financial Economics. Trying to gain back my confidence and focus on other things. No more taking part in anything that has to do with beauty and instead focused on being a course rep for my department and do as much extra curricular things I could do in my safe university environment, which I did …
Fast-forwarding again ……….. First year came and went with a good result, new and fantastic friends, wonderful boyfriend, and family around for the summer. It was fun fun fun all the way, what more could I ask for? At the time nothing. Until Christmas 2006 in my second year, as I sat in my room revising for my exams. The thought came back to me. “You need to follow your dreams” I looked through some of my pictures again. I brought it up to my sister and friends who encouraged me. My sister IB would always say “you are better ?” and she would laugh and continue to say it. My dearest friends Folake and Margaret would always say the same whenever we walked past the shops in the city center or when we were watching ANTM. I did not want to let them get into my head. I was scared from my previous experience and have been told it is very common in this industry. “I JUST DON’T WANT TO BE PART OF IT ANYMORE!!!!” I would always say to them…but some where in me I missed it .I loved the camera, I loved the back stage interviews ,the make up ,the after parties…I missed ALL of it …
At the end of the year I came across an audition for a competition called NIGERIA’S TOP MODEL …now this was where the real deal started…a real BITTER/SWEET experience….I lost my friends, my relationship was in shambles, too many secrets and lies, eating disorders, picking up bad habits, all sorts of temptation, TV interviews, making new friends and a whole lot more….Tune in for the next installment…Part 3 coming soon.
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