To be fair, my time at JRP was a lot of fun. I learned about doing my make-up, my hair, picking out my clothes, how to walk, how to turn (the one really useful skill), how to pose, and I got to hang out with a fun bunch of kids while doing it all. Now, if I had really been wanting to model, I would have been very irritated because nothing I did there helped me become a model. It was all class and no placement.
When I did model it was because I sent pictures of myself to real agencies and to locally based stores. And very little of what I learned at JRP couldn't be learned for less through another company, one that is being a little more honest about what it is they are selling to you. Now that I am older I feel bad that my mom wasted all that money for me to take those classes. She worked hard for her money and I would have rather gone on a vacation or had cable tv.
As far as confidence and grace, I would highly recomend a good martial arts program over JRP. Your children will gain much more confidence, grace of movement, exercise, self-respect and respect for others that they will in JRP's fluffy classes. I have had a few young ladies ask me about getting into modeling over the years and I have never told them to go to JRP or any dinky local agency. I tell them if they want to model locally bug the locally owned stores. If you go to them they will let you know how they hire their models. If you want to model nationally, go to the major agency's websites and find out what they want to see in the submission.
But JRP isn't all bad. I had a friend in high school who responded to a classified ad seeking models, when he went for the "interview" they tried to get him to take nude photos! I have also been aproached by any number of "scouts" that really don't want anything other than me or my money. If you want to model or act, you have to be tough, you have to go outside of what you know and fight for it. Nobody is going to bring it to you on a silver platter. You will work for it, these are jobs, not just playing at the park. But unlike other jobs, in this career field there are a lot of people trying to make money off of your dreams without helping you reach them.
The first thing I would tell anyone is to decide if this is a dream or a goal. A dream is what you would like to have happen, a goal is something you want to work for, something you achieve by developing a plan and sticking to it. If it is just a dream, save yourself the grief (and money) and just enjoy the dream.
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