Talent Management is a company that believes it’s time for more transparency in the modelling industry. Too many young people – men and women but, most worryingly, children – are proving to have been negatively effected by imagery that they see around them every day. Thankfully 2012 has been a year where campaigners have helped to reveal truths about modelling that could save lives! Not least of these is this recent Models Are Made (Fashion Behind the Scenes) Vlog from photographer Stephan Bollinger featured below.

We applaud this video and hope that there will be more to follow in 2013 – helping to protect the welfare of those who are vulnerable to media imagery. Their attempts to try to live up to representations of ‘perfection’ – not realising that this is an impossible task – are both futile and unnecessarily damaging and it’s time this was acknowledged and something was done about it. In the opinion of those here at Talent Management reviews of the way that photo shoots work behind the scenes can only be helpful and positive.

In some cases irresponsible advertising can lead to serious health issues, even premature death and many industry professionals believe that the public, especially the young, should be made more media literate. We think it’s the responsibility of those who can to lift the curtain on the processes that take place on modelling shoots and in editing suites – so that the reality is understood and the public can stop feeling pressured to live up to ideas around beauty that are often based on fantasy.

Stephan Bollinger is not the only one to have done their bit to raise awareness about the extent to which tricks like Photoshopping are used in order to create flawless skin or incredible silhouettes for models and celebrities. This year we also saw teenager Julia Bluhm’s incredibly successful campaigns aimed at Seventeen Magazine and Teen Vogue, demanding that they give readers images of “Real Girls”. She has really made a difference for girls her age.

So if you know people who still believe that models and celebrities walk on set looking like they do in glossy magazines, share this video and spread the word – they’re just people who have bad hair days, spots and cellulite like the rest of us!

Meanwhile, Talent Management urges you to celebrate your uniqueness and your most attractive quality – a confident smile!