When did you start modeling?
Cheryl Diamond
At fourteen. It was quite a change from my former vocation as a ballet dancer and touch-football aficionado. But, I was getting too tall for dance and in the twilight of my career as a tomboy. Modeling seemed like a good idea.
How did you get involved in modeling?
I was intercepted on my way to dance class by a scout for a local agency and asked if I had ever thought about being a model. I hadn’t seriously, but I started to pretty quickly. It’s not unusual for models to be recruited this way. Claudia Schiffer was scouted in a nightclub; Kate Moss in an airport. The local agency will use the model for catalogs and ads in the area. After a few years, if they think the model has potential they will introduce her to a New York agency. Instead of signing with the local agency I bypassed the middle man and went straight to New York, tagging along with my dad on a business trip. After going up and down a lot of stairs I was taken on by an agency that was very enthusiastic. Maybe even manic. That began my experiences with the larger than life characters in the modeling industry.
What aspect of your character most helped you succeed as a model and an author?
My amazing capacity to process rejection. This trait is very important in both professions. I just don’t believe in negativity. It can depress me for short periods of time but ends up actually motivating me to prove the doubter wrong. I think some of the people who have helped me most were trying to destroy me. Just because an experience is traumatic it doesn’t necessarily have to traumatize someone. I really believe it can be turned around and made to work for you. These hostile people make for fabulous characters in my book. They really leap off the page in all their fury.
* How old were you when you started writing Model and how long did it take you to finish it?
I started writing it when I was sixteen. I was working with my highly strung agency, going to modeling calls and shoots, trying desperately not to laugh at the zaniness. It was a relief to go back to my apartment and write anecdotes down. My book took three years and four mini nervous meltdowns to complete, but I look at my finished manuscript and it’s worth it. Kept me out of trouble too.
* What inspired you to write your memoir?
We did a tremendous amount of traveling when I was little. I remember wanting my presence, however brief, to leave some sort of invisible scar – permanent yet not painful – on the people I encountered. They would remember the fun and most of all my abrupt and glamorously mysterious departure. All before they had time to identify who or what hurricane Cheryl was, or become bored with me. I had a worry with moving so frequently that I would not leave a lasting impression on anyone and then, if they didn’t remember me, had I ever really been there at all? Places I have lived often slip my mind and I am surprised and a bit unsettled when my parents insist I resided there. Before we left a place I often secretly got out a magic marker and wrote: ‘I was here!!!’ in a non-prominent place such as the closet. Writing something in ink has always satisfied me. I never liked pencils. Ink is not reversible, retractable or erasable. It is there – permanently. No wonder I grew up and began writing my memoir, in ink, at sixteen. It was inevitable. The old urge resurfaced and I spent three years writing a book that shouts ‘I was here!!!’
* What was the most difficult thing about writing your book?
The fact that I hadn’t seriously written anything before. I spent a lot of time eying blank legal pads with hostility. Since I knew from reading that the first two lines of any book are very important for the readers to see if they are interested, I tore up a lot of drafts. Finally, after a month, I got the idea for a perfect beginning to my book. This happened in the middle of a photo shoot, of course, as I was posing and trying to look elegant. I ran off the backdrop and told the photographer I had to write something down very urgently. He looked surprised and said that was one excuse he had never heard before.
* Who should read Model?
If you are a featherless biped, this book is for you. At the very beginning I thought girls and women would be the most intrigued by an inside account of modeling and the way it really is for a young girl who starts from scratch. Then I began to realize men are just as intrigued by the machinations of the modeling industry, maybe even more than they are interested in models! A male lawyer in his fifties who proofread my manuscript raves about it. There is a lot of misinformation, exaggeration and general fogginess as to how the industry works. I was surprised at how it is often hilarious, sometimes wrenching and rarely glamorous without a catch. If you have ever felt that you can’t turn the tables on someone who seems more powerful than you, ever been bullied in business or, just wanted to state what you really think, you will get a kick out of Model.
* What is your vision for your book?
I would like it to be a bestseller. I also like to set difficult goals and then relentlessly needle myself into attaining them. I remember riding the subway after a long day with everyone looking exhausted and overheated. A woman sitting across from me seemed especially glum until halfway down the page of a book she was reading I saw her grin hugely and actually giggle before catching herself. I want that to be my book. To crack someone up on the subway during rush hour is epic.
* What were/are the most demanding conflicts you face as a model and author?
In modeling most if not all socializing is done at ultra trendy nightclubs. Clubs were interesting the first few times I went but then became wearing. I felt I had to be on high alert. There are some unnerving people navigating Manhattan’s club circuit and I seemed to run into most of them. I began staying home and writing, or staring at the ceiling contemplating my fate while eating Doritos. I never told anyone I was writing a book, but they seemed to sense I was up to no good. As a teenager, it is tempting to fit in and be one of the clique. Especially when fashion models are so actively recruited and fawned over by clubs and the people who run them. It is an easy trap to fall into. Luckily a part of me really enjoys being contrary and surprising people. When I was sixteen almost everyone expected me to party all night like a lot of models do. I mulled that over and decided to become an author.
* What are your plans for the future?
I am very focused on my book right now. It’s lucky that I have a very savvy, motivated team at my publisher. I find writing very rewarding but after all these years I still get a rush on my way to my next modeling shoot. I enjoy the gossip and camaraderie of shoots and the thrill of the runway. I will also give speeches and interviews as I am pretty good at pontificating. Recent media attention has made modeling a hot subject and I hope my book will make a substantial contribution. In the future I plan to continue observing the beautiful jungle that is New York and writing about it.
* Would you share with our readers if you ever experienced that the reality wasn’t exactly like you had dreamt of?
Dreams are 31% better than real life. It’s a fact. I don’t think anything I dreamt ever matched reality. But reality has been much more complex and informative than any rosy dream I ever had. I envisioned New York fashion designers chasing me down the street begging me to be their muse; in reality I had to compete with hundreds of amazing-looking models. Still, dreams are essential. People who say not to dream so big or to get your head out of the clouds are ridiculous. Who do they think invented telephones or airplanes? Dreamers. Everyone thought they were nuts too.
* What advice would you give an aspiring book author?
Always use Times New Roman to type your manuscript. When I was seventeen a literary agent told me she hadn’t bothered to read my manuscript because it was set in Arial. She said it was a clear indication that I wasn’t a professional. I asked if there was anything else that tipped her off about my rampant lack of grace. She got on a roll and informed me that paragraphs should never have space between them and should instead only be indented. Before hanging up on me she declared that I needed to write a proposal. Oddly, I was encouraged by the browbeating and fixed the manuscript while searching the net to figure out what a book proposal is. The one I wrote seemed to go over reasonably well and consisted of six parts. Overview, about your book, doesn’t have to be more than four (indented!) paragraphs. Marketing and Competition, what websites could you advertise on etc. and the book titles (include publisher’s and author’s name) that are already published and similar to yours. Target Market, who will buy your book. About the Author, puff piece on you, don’t hold back. Chapter Titles, even if you haven’t completed your book list titles through to the end, it gives agents hope that you will finish it. Chapter Summary, one compact paragraph on each chapter through to the end of your book.
Next craft a one-page, no more than a page, query letter summarizing how awesome your book is and bombard literary agents with it. If they are interested they will likely request that you send them your proposal and a few sample chapters. Always write with the reader in mind. If a paragraph isn’t interesting, funny or forceful just take it out. It’s a very competitive market, the faster the pace the better. Write as if the whole world has a short attention span.
* Could you suggest the three most important lessons you have learned?
Never give up. Ever.
If someone says, ‘believe me’, don’t.
A person’s title or position is not an indication of their worth at all. One of the most enlightening conversations I ever had was with a homeless man. Every person has a story and it is worth hearing.
For more information, please visit www.cherylmodel.com. Cheryl Diamond can be reached at diamondmodelbook@gmail.com.