By Tiffany Minomi

By keeping your efforts businesslike and your expectations realistic, you can follow your dream to stardom. Along the way, you’ll also pick up skills useful in all walks of life.

At one time or another, almost every young person dreams of becoming a famous model or actor. When you think about it, who wouldn’t? With fame comes celebrity status, good money, beautiful people to mingle with, and a pampered lifestyle.

As a young teen, I too had visions of being a model or actress, but I had no idea how to “get started” in the industry. I wasn’t popular, nor did I think of myself as pretty or elegant, but I was fortunate to have parents who were supportive of my desires. Once knowing what my true aspirations were, they helped me attend a modeling and acting school just outside our hometown.

After attending school, I landed some part-time print and fashion work. I was never famous, and I never worked in Paris, but I did make enough money to put myself through college. The fascinating part about my experience at the school is that I didn’t realize what I had learned until many years later while I was in college. I was taught self-confidence and had built a healthy self-esteem. Many of my peers lacked these qualities and were afraid to make mistakes, but my learning experience at the modeling school gave me the courage to take risks and achieve my aspirations.

Training is the key

If your aspiration is to develop a career in modeling and acting, look at it as exactly that, a career. Just as with any other profession, training is the key ingredient to success. The fact is,  every professional in this industry has had coaching, so if your dream is to be a professional actor or model, coaching and training is a necessary component of your success.

Many people think that training facilities are for aspiring models only, but surprisingly, over 80 percent of all those enrolled are studying acting. Because of the strict height requirement of 5 ft. 9 in. or above for women and 6 ft. or above for men in the modeling field, many choose acting as their career path. In acting, height is not a major factor because of the magic of the camera. Training facilities have developed programs that appeal to most everyone, and they help students reach their goals in numerous areas of the entertainment business.

Getting help!

 I receive a multitude of questions from young people attempting to break into the modeling and acting industry. Starting out is not an easy task. However, there are subtle things you can do to increase your chances of success. Training is a crucial element simply because it gives you a competitive advantage over others trying out at auditions. Training provides auditioning techniques and improvisational skills, and it will make you a better cold reader, which is important during an audition with a casting director. If your aspirations lie in the field of modeling, the key is to start young in order to give yourself the time to try it out. Don’t start when you should be going to college; at that point in your life, there already are too many time constraints and obstacles.

Acting and modeling are not easy fields to break into. However, if you keep your hopes modest and your drive to succeed high, your experience can be rewarding. In fact, there are quite a few actors in the Los Angeles area who are very successful, but by no means famous. I have helped many teens and kids get commercials and bit parts. Of course, starting small is required, but from there, if you have the right drive and have been given the proper training, your roles will become bigger and so will the payoff.

Obviously, not everyone’s aspirations of becoming an actor or model can materialize. Unfortunately, only one percent of all people who have auditioned make it to super-stardom. Take this fact into consideration. Even if you don’t succeed as an actor or model, the training that you receive along the way will prove to be invaluable in whatever field you decide to enter. Take myself, for example. I had my successes in the modeling world, but by no means did I spend an entire career modeling. Today, I work in the industry I love and use the skills I learned while developing my modeling talent on an everyday basis. The secret to my success was training. Let training be the secret to yours.