Secrets of the Model Dorm

By Amanda Kerlin and Phil Oh

After doing some modeling in her home state of Virginia and in Florida, young Heather is ready to take on New York City. She signs with a small New York agency and moves into company housing, an apartment she shares with three other young model hopefuls.
Heather has it all, youth, beauty, height. But her boss, former model and owner of the agency, Rachel, wants her to lose fifteen pounds. Even at the tender age of eighteen, Heather is finding it near impossible to lose the required weight. Of course, her partying lifestyle may have something to do with it. Instead of sticking to a strict diet and hitting the gym every day, Heather and her three roommates are out on the town, getting loaded and picking up men. One of the roommates, Kylie, spends her evenings, when she is at home and not out on the town, getting wasted on Metamucil cocktails: vodka and Metamucil.
The girls are given a list of casting calls to attend every day. They are dressed, interviewed and photographed, and, hopefully, get that call back to an important, major fashion job. The days are spent running from appointment to appointment, the nights are spent running from club to club.
But gradually the pressure gets to be a bit much, and following a romantic disappointment, Heather begins to think that maybe being a model is not the lifestyle for her. But what else can she do? She dropped out of high school to start her modeling career and she really knows nothing else but modeling. She can't face the idea of returning home a failure, though. And now that Rachel, the boss, has learned Heather has a part time receptionist job and has still failed to lose the fifteen pounds, her time with agency may soon be coming to an end.

This was an OK read. Heather and the other models lead decadent, self-destructive lifestyles, crammed together in their crowded, grungy apartment. Sex, booze, parties, drugs, it's the old story of young people on their own for the first time, giving into every excess. An old story and not particularly interesting anymore. Heather does avoid most of the excesses except for the alcohol abuse. All the models drink far too much, it's like that is the only way they know of to have fun and relax.  The author used to be a model and I suppose she knows what it is like to be a young model in NYC.