Model Life: The Journey of a Pint-Size Fashion Warrior

by Isobella Jade, Jazmin Ruotolo (Illustrator)

Isobella Jade, a student at the New York Institute of Technology, begins exploring the possibility of working as a lingerie model — despite her nontraditional height of 5'4”. A Google search leads her to ads posted on Craigslist, and soon Jade finds herself turning up at private apartments for model shoots that more often than not turn out to be seedy, disappointing, and sometimes downright dangerous.

After she is sliced across the eyebrow in a fight with a sleazy so-called fashion photographer who will not respect her boundaries in a photo shoot, Jade decides that she's finished with answering ads on Craigslist. She’s determined to get professional, get an agent, and become a real model.

Model Life reveals her glamorous and not-so-glamorous on-the-job experiences in New York City. From her first photo shoot and her close brushes with soft porn to her appearances in ad campaigns for national retailers and magazines, this height-challenged model shares her past in an edgy, illustrated exposé. The original story of the ultimate underdog, Model Life is a celebration of the self-discovery that comes with being self-made and the triumph of beating the odds.

Genres: Graphic Novels

108 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

About the author

Isobella Jade is an author, petite model and a wizard of self-promotion. Her modeling memoir Almost 5'4" is her personal memoir about being a shorter-than-average model in NYC, the ins and outs and highs and lows of striving to beat the odds. Her graphic novel Model Life was released in November 2009 and Short Stuff is her collection of on-the-job experiences that took place after Almost 5'4" and includes modeling tips for shorter girls. Her most recent work is a new YA novel called Careful, the first book of the Careful, Quiet, Invisible series.

Reviews

[Alea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Model Life is based on Isobella Jade's real life experiences with breaking into the modeling world. Though she is much shorter than the average model she is determined and finds that if she looks hard enough the work is out there for someone of her height. While trying to model she's also trying to balance college, friends and a boyfriend.

I thought the book was exciting, will this shoot turn into something huge for Isobella or will it be a dead end? Will she be able to balance school with modeling? I thought the illustrator easily got across scenes with so few frames. That's very important in graphic novels, to get across everything that is happening in one scene with just a few pictures.

I wish that the graphic novel was longer, I feel like it just brushed the surface of Isobella's journey and would have loved to have seen more examples of how she got from where she started in the beginning of the book to how it ended. I do love the way the graphic novel ended though, it got a big awwwww from me.

A few cosmetic things I noticed with the book, I found a few spelling errors (I was reading a final copy) and also noticed the contrast on some of the background photography to be almost non-existent so I had a hard time seeing in detail in the photography. Also the frame structure sometimes changed from page to page so I always had to pay close attention to which frame I was reading first. I loved the illustration style though, it really got Isobella's emotions across and had great movement on the page. And I also loved how some photography, handwritten journal entries and text messages were used to move the story forward.

While I wish the graphic novel explored more of Isobella's journey I thought it was a wonderful and can't wait to read her memoir, Almost 5'4" which I hope will expand on what I read in Model Life.

[Lorra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh...I put this down 1/4 of the way through, but then ended up reading it all. It's a decent story but not detailed enough - it would have been much better with better artwork - the art was lovely in some panels and absolute crap in others - more consistency would have been better, plus it was lame having the photos of the city included - like the artist couldn't be bothered, or like she couldn't draw anything other than manga-style people.
I think having better artwork would have REALLY gave this some punch because it's about a MODEL, who is BEAUTIFUL - so damn, make her beautiful, every single time.

[Rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

I forgot I read this a while back! it wasnt awful..I read it during a bubble bath lol quick read