Jaunel McKenzie opens up
JAMAICAN supermodel Jaunel McKenzie has spoken out against some of the pifalls which are known to affect young people in that industry.
In an interview posted on modelalliance.com — an organisation established ‘to give models in the US a voice in their workplace and organise to improve their basic working conditions’ — McKenzie is candid and open on issues including financial transparency and racial diversity.
In the article, she remarks that too often young models become caught up in the fairy-tale life of jetting between exotic locations and working for high-end brands, and never take the time to learn the business.
“When you’re young and just starting out, you don’t realise that the $1,500 flight from Jamaica to Paris isn’t free. The pocket money you’re given every week, that comes out of your statement. The driver you had for two months, you’re actually paying for it,” she is quoted as saying.
Once rated as the top black model by models.com, McKenzie explained that this all came home to her when she questioned certain deductions. That was when she was told that the agency fronts a number of payments for ‘start-up’ costs, which was never explained at the outset.
“You think everything is free, but obviously it’s not,” she said.
She is, therefore, encouraging young models who experience a level of financial success to spend wisely.
“When work slows down — and it does slow down — you look for where your money went. Then you go into your closet and see your 10 Chanel handbags […] I know this because I’ve done this.”
McKenzie told the website that it is these life lessons that led her to start her own model development company, FACE, to get models to a certain level of understanding, to let them know how the industry works.
Like industry icons Iman and Bethann Hardison, McKenzie is also concerned about the lack of racial diversity in the modelling industry.
“I remember I was doing a show and the dresser came up to me and said ‘wow your people are working.’ I said, ‘what do you mean?’ She goes, ‘your people are working. A lot of you girls are here. There are five black girls walking in this show.'”
That was five black girls in a cast of 30, and McKenzie said she began to take note. In retrospect, she realised she was either the only black girl on a show or one of two.
She puts the lack of diversity down to casting.
“People say that there aren’t enough black models. But you go into the agencies and they do have them. And the reason why the agents aren’t taking them in the first place is because they’re not working. So it comes from the people who call the shots. It comes from them to say hey, we need to open this industry. And it’s not just black and white at all. There are a lot of other races who also aren’t being represented,” said McKenzie.