I Went Undercover As A Teen Model

& What I Found Was So Disturbing...

By Meredith Wright

Dagmar moved from Estonia to Osaka, Japan to launch her modeling career. Her contract included housing and pay for her two months in Japan.

So why was she sent home two weeks later?

Dagmar was fired for gaining two centimeters around her waist.

For many young women, this is just a glimpse into the harsh reality of teen modeling...

When I was 17, a modeling scout approached me at a mall. Modeling helped me pay for college-level courses and allowed me to travel the world. I climbed Mount Fuji, ate gelato by the Coliseum in Rome, and sailed high above the rooftops aboard the London Eye.

But I struggled.

After seven years in the business, I was ready to quit. But to move forward, I had to go back. So I returned overseas on a modeling contract — only this time I packed a camera along with my portfolio and heels.

The result is "Agency," a documentary film I made working undercover as a model in Japan...

It tells the story of models like Holly Angus, the 13-year-old Canadian who told me about being so homesick that she felt physically ill and would cry herself to sleep every night.

Our agency, like many others, discouraged parents from accompanying their daughters abroad and assured them we would be chaperoned.

But Holly’s apartment was unsupervised, her weekends were unsupervised, and her photoshoots were unsupervised.

“I’m 13 and I’m doing this on my own? Well I guess this is what I signed up for,” she said.

I met Jacqueline, a chain-smoking 17-year-old from South Africa who talked at length about her recent trip to the hospital. She had been working back-to-back jobs, partying in the evenings, and not eating.

But the lavish modeling life quickly caught up to her...

Concerned because she had not left her room in hours, a male model broke her door down. He found her shivering and feverish and rushed her to a hospital where she “had convulsions and almost went into a coma,” Jacqueline says.

Find out what happened.

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