SL's Next Top Model (Yeah right lol) I’m outspoken. I am the one who says exactly what lots of people think but don't say. I am also saw by many as the epitome of everything that reminds them their sl isn’t real. A while back I had a bit of an argument with a few people about my views on the sl fashion/modelling world. Personally, I think there is a few people who take it all a bit too serious. There is definitely a few people who need click the red X and step back from the computer screen because they actually think sl is real.
The dispute I am talking about happened on a Jerry Springery type talk show, and a few people found out I am as outspoken in voice as I am with my typing.
Some of the members of the audience didn’t like when I said sl wasn’t real life and they weren’t real models. In fact they freaked the fuck out and told me that sl was real. They also told me that being a model in sl was incredibly hard, exhausting and it took a long time to be trained to be able to walk in one of the big sl fashion shows. Having never been a sl model I wasn’t able to say much on this, it’s just not something I saw as being particularly hard and I voiced my opinion just as they voiced theirs. I decided to do a bit of investigating into the world of sl modelling. While most of it all seems to be legit albeit a bit silly, there did seem to be a lot of people, who for a price will ‘teach’ you how to be a sl model. I wandered around the fashion ‘schools’ and listened in on a few conversations. I done this an alt because I am very sure that while I don’t know a lot of these people I am sure they know me. I enquired with modelling agencies across the grid about how to get started as a sl model. I walked amongst the models and listened to lines like ‘Darling where did you get those shoes?’ I mean come on, you right click and inspect the god damn shoes. As an unknown normal person, with nothing only the fine skin on my back and a set of expensive clothes (that everyone avatar on the grid will be wearing) I set off on my quest for fame and fortune as a sl model. I found that the bigger well known modelling agencies weren’t hiring models but the ones who were, wanted ME to PAY them money to teach me how to be a model! The smallest fee was 10k, but I would still have to buy all my own walks, poses, skin, hair etc. I had to play it very cool and very dumb, as I was afraid I’d blow my cover and they would realise I was Natalie. Isn’t it weird how when you’re all alted up you think everyone knows it is you? (I know you are all nodding)
I think there might have been blood trickling down my face from me biting my lip because basically I was being asked for money for being shown how to use the arrow keys on my keyboard and how to click my mouse. Then when I questionsed this I was also told that it was nothing really to do with your ‘skills’ at being a ‘model’, it was more who you know and what you know that could propel you to the top of the sl fashion world. So I wouldn’t be paying my 10k just to learn how to use the arrow keys to walk forward, id be paying to be in some sort of weird little clique. Needless to say I didn’t pay this airhead any money. When I had been involved in this argument about sl modelling, I do remember saying that I really didn’t see what skill was involved. I do remember being reminded that there were lots of things to learn and that not just anyone could do it. I do remember saying that in most cases it was all about who you know and what you know and I was told that wasn’t true.
Well, I know a lot of models who are lots of fun and not all sl models are hung up on what they do and you know what, they are the best ones cause they have lots of character. They know who they are BTW. They are also a bit fed up with the way modelling is portrayed in sl because of a few people giving it a bad name and because certain people think it’s real life. As I said before and as most know I am not a sl model. I have had no training and I have never been to modelling school but I am Natalie Niven. The timing was uncanny for this little experiment because it was BOSL Fashion Week, so I decided to just be blunt and wing it and I went straight to see Mr BOSL himself, Frolic Mills.
I asked Frolic straight out if I could be a model in the final show of BOSL Fashion Week and he said ‘sure hon, rehearsal is at 7pmslt on Sunday’. At first I thought maybe he had lost his mind for letting someone like me within 10 meters of his runway, but sure enough I soon saw my name on a list of models for Sundays Chanel show. I turned up for the practice with nothing. I had no fancy poses or walks. I used my own skin and hair and I just listened to the instructions to what I had to do and when I had to do it. When it came time to do the real show I walked down the runway through the lag and clicked on what I was told to click on. I disappointed my friends who had thought maybe I would use my trip and fall on my face animation. I think secretly I disappointed Frolic because I didn’t do it.
My day as a sl model was an experience. I won’t say it was fun cause it wasn’t, I found it very boring, and I found myself wanting to go on voice and shout “ Look just listen to what you are being told and click the f***ing ball” but then I suppose people get their fun in different ways.I did talk to a few girls I knew there in IM, but no one else spoke to me or made me feel part of the show. I knew as soon as I rezzed I was not part of the team.
Well that concludes my research into being an sl model and what it took to be one for a day. I often wonder though would it have been an easy if I hadn’t been Natalie Niven. If I had been that unknown model who wandered the grid trying to be an sl model would I still have been able to make it to the big time fashion runway as quickly as I did?
