Club goers become supermodels for a day

STORY BY BARBARA GREENBERG

July 20, 2006 11:41 am

— Models with long, straight, shiny hair, flawless complexions and pencil-thin bodies fill music videos and magazines.
Adults recognize the gap between these images and reality. But for teenage girls, the photos and the videos seem more than real. They become the ideal these young women can’t reach. And when they can’t, lowered self-esteem re-sults.
In extreme cases, eating disorders and other forms of self-loathing develop.
Two local women joined forces Wednesday to turn this situation around for members of “Club Girls!” — part of the Boys & Girls Club of Danville summer program.
Teen REACH coordinator Brennon Hightower works with 13- to 17-year-old girls in the program. With help from Joyce Knoblauch, owner of Knoblauch Photo Studios, Hightower gave 10 girls the chance to become supermodels in a mini-photo shoot Wednesday at Knoblauch’s studio.
As each girl took her place in front of the bright lights and the camera, Knoblauch advised, “Be proud of yourself and how you look.”
The girls heard the same message earlier in the week from Hightower.
They learned just how artificial what they see in the media really is. Hightower, who has experience in make-up and modeling, explained techniques photographers use to alter models’ appearances.
“I went to school for modeling, fashion design and make-up,” the 2000 Danville High School graduate said. “I tell the girls, ‘I’m taking all I learned and paid thousands of dollars for. I’m giving it to you for free.’”
Knoblauch added her expertise as she explained photographers’ tricks in the age of digital images.
“You look at photos and wish you looked that way,” she told the girls, “but it’s not what the models really look like. They’re air-brushed. They’re combinations of one person’s head and another person’s body.
“You wouldn’t recognize them if they were sitting next to you.”
She reinforced Hightower’s message.
“But the most important lesson is to believe in yourself,” Hightower said. “You’re important as an individual.”
The teens in the group heard them both, loud and clear.
Despite some initial shyness in front of the camera, they quickly responded to Knoblauch and her encouraging words.
“Just play,” she said. “Have a good time.
“The camera is just a thing. It doesn’t think or care.”
Angela Collins, a Danville High School sophomore in the fall, had so much fun that she wanted a second time before the camera.
“I was nervous the first time,” she said. “Now I’d like another picture.”
Collins resents the way models look in the media.
“They’re all skinny people,” she said. “And there aren’t enough African-Americans.”
Other teens in the club echoed her sentiments, but some maintained they didn’t care about the images that bombard them.
“I don’t want to be skinny,” Doni’ca French, a DHS freshman, said. “I want to be an obstetrician.”
“I’m me,” said 16-year-old Kynda Cooper. “I don’t care what anybody says.”
Knoblauch donated her time and the photos from the shoot to the Boys & Girls Club because of her strong belief in what women can accomplish.
“Photography was a man’s field for a long time,” she said. “When I graduated from high school, women had just a few career paths — secretary, teacher or nurse.
“I started out to be a teacher. I still love kids, love to work with them, but I’m a woman that has had her own business for 14 years, who’s been a photographer for 23 years. That can inspire these young women to have different interests.
“Maybe they’ll think about modeling after this,” she said, “but maybe they’ll think about photography or lighting or owning their own business.”

Copyright © 1999-2010 cnhi, inc.