#1 Are you looking for a job for both of the girls or just the
13 year old?
#2 Is this what the 13 year old wants to do?
#3 Is she a self assured leader, or is she a follower who has difficulty with peer pressure? (Whatever the answer is OK, it's just who she is)
We as mothers need to be very careful entering this arena with our children. While many people want to be famous, and rich not many people can actually handle it.
Currently our society is watching the meltdown of a beautiful girl who's mother got her into the business as a young child.
She spent her time with adults, catering to her every need just to get her to do what they wanted her to do. She had no boundaries on her behavior and no boundaries on the bribes that she received, as the job had to be done. She was isolated from normal family life, because children are not generally exposed to the kind of attention that is given to child models, and actors. It is not normal, and it takes a vigilant parent to protect the child from becoming a master manipulator of emotions and scenarios, and pull them out of the situation when they honestly look at the situation and seeing it happen. This young girls mother had the best intentions, but at some point she had to have seen what was happening to her child. But probably at that very same point this girl became such a high commodity for the producers that their money was able to change the mothers values, and loose her integrity. Her name is Brittney Spears.
I lived in Hollywood for many years, and have friends in the business. I have friends who were child actors and models, most are no longer in the business, as only a few can handle adolescence as a public figure and transition into adulthood while holding onto their careers.
The reasons vary as to why they don't continue but rejection and fear of rejection are usually the core reasons.
By putting your child in this position you are placing their very value as a human being on the line at an extremely inappropriate age. They haven't lived long enough to gather the skills to deal with rejection.
If they get the job, great! If they don't the question is always no matter what you say to encourage them is "What's Wrong with Me"? That is far to much to ask of a child, and the industry is set up in such a way that offers no way around this obstacle.
As the first thing that is required by any professional modeling agency is photo's. You must submit 1 8 1/2 by 11 headshot, and one 8 1/2 x 11 body shot. On the back of both photos you want to have a little bio on the subject and smaller photos of the subject in different styles of clothing to show the subjects range.
If you tell the child that you are just taking the pictures for fun, lay them out on your computer and print them and send them out to a few angencies with a cover letter for consideration for representation; all without telling the child what you are doing is probably better.
If you get a positive response stating they would like to meet your child and pursue a representative relationship, then do your homework on the agency. Google, Better Business Burea etc.All before telling the child, also it would be beneficial for you to speak the agent as well, and ask that the interview be kept low key and not to allow the agent to go overboard with promises of fame and fortune.
I you receive a 'thanks but no thanks' letter than your child will never know and it will not be a huge let down.
Remember, if you tell her about this, the first thing she will do is tell her friends, then her friends are going to badger her constantly about the status of her career. If she get's the job. She will instantly be the most popular and the most secretly hated girl in her class if not in her school. She will have more attention, and more 'middle school drama' than any of her friends and she will immediately be the subject of all conversation; good and bad. If she doesn't get the job everyone will make fun of her, judge her, tease her, and she will remain the topic of conversation, just in a negative way.
So do her a huge favor and don't let her know anything about it.
The children who do the best in this business are the children that are most like the "class clown' personality. They are outgoing, and driven. They see themselves on stage every day in their minds eye and get THEMSELVES on stage at an early age by their on volition. The kids with this personality are outgoing and speak to anyone and everyone, and constantly look for ways to be in the limelight. If this describes your child, I definitely suggest starting with 'community theater', local talent agency's for local business commercials. Local beauty pageants. If you start on the local level, then she will have local expectations and be able to keep a good perspective. Remember, they haven't developed the skills that you and I have had a lifetime to develop and it can be sooo overwhelming, and a national rejection could actually arrest the development and will to try other things before she ever had the chance to develop something that is truly a gift she possesses.
In closing please be gentle. They are so fragile, and we only get one chance in this life to learn the sequential developmental steps that healthy adults possess. If we miss one or three because we are thrust into an adult situation at pivital point in our development we will never again be able to capture it and put it in the correct order.