Rule #1: Don’t Be a Model on Your Birthday

Number one thing to know about turning 21: Don’t be a model on your birthday.

April 28, 2007. My sister’s 21st birthday.

A student at the Kansas City Art Institute, my sister was asked to be a model in her friend’s end-of-the-school-year fashion show. Turning 21 AND you get to be a model, all on the same day?! What could be better, right?

Not quite.

The way the story goes, my sister started the big day by getting her make-up done at the show’s location. Afterwards her boyfriend took her out for a quick lunch, and then she had to come back right away to start getting ready. Her best friend, who was also a model in the show, bought her a drink and, well, the night started from there.

Now if any of you know anything about fashion shows, I’m sure you’ve figured out by now that they never start on time. My rule of thumb is take the time the fashion show is supposed to start, add 30-45 minutes to that, and you’re pretty much set.

Now imagine that you’re a model in the fashion show. You had to get there about two hours ahead of time to start getting ready, and then you know that you have to wait about 45 more minutes before you can go on stage. And the fashion show is at a bar. And it’s your 21st birthday. What do you think you’re going to do?

You’re going to drink.

“I was kinda drunk by the modeling point,” my sister told me. “The first walk down the runway I forgot to stop at the end for cameras, but by the second round I nailed it and posed for the pics.”

It could have been worse. She could have gone on stage at the wrong time, put on the wrong outfit or even have tripped when she was strutting her stuff down the catwalk. But what was the worst part about being a model on her 21st birthday? Everybody was so tired from getting ready for the fashion show all day, that almost none of her friends wanted to go outProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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ith her afterwards.

“I wanted to go out to the bar since it was my 21st birthday, so Chris [her boyfriend], James [one of her other roommates] and I went to the Point , a little whole in the wall bar, had a few drinks and that was it,” she told me.

Womp womp.

So being a model on the big day might be cool, but if I can help it, I think I’m going to avoid any runways. Getting all glammed up might be cool, but I want to make sure all my friends are there to celebrate with me all night long.