‘About 15 years ago, I started shooting my experience as a model backstage with a little handheld video camera. I was 18 and dating an NYU film student, so the idea of documenting everything just became a habit. This was before Instagram or even camera phones existed. It was only a few years in, and we realized we had something that people might be interested in, which turned into our first documentary, Picture Me. It\u2019s mostly my story, which honestly I felt weird about, but my involvement was more getting other models to share their stories and keep video diaries. I think it was kind of an experiment, and it was kind of a guerrilla effort. There was no budget\u2014it was just a side project. It was a chance for me to be creative and connect with other models who I was friends with, so we could talk about the industry. Looking back, it\u2019s like the tip of the iceberg. There were so many issues that we didn\u2019t get into, like a real conversation about lack of diversity\u2014especially in terms of racial diversity\u2014in the modeling industry. I\u2019ve re-watched Picture Me several years later and noticed that there\u2019s not a single model of color in that film. We talked about body image issues but, race never came up. The film helped start a conversation in the industry that will hopefully continue. We also exposed other problems in the industry, like one photographer who is known for abusing his power with models and casting. Now the industry really has to look at itself and its practices\u2014in large part because of social media.<\/p>\n
The film also gave me a platform to form The Model Alliance. Initially I approached established unions to see if they would accept models into their union, but I was turned down every single time. I don\u2019t think people think of modeling as a job in the same way they understand that actors have unions, with maximum working hours when they\u2019re on set. So I decided to start from scratch. We launched in February 2012, and we\u2019ve done so much. I\u2019m most proud of the extended child labor laws that protect models under 18 in the state of New York. We also met with editors at Vogue, and shortly thereafter, they introduced the Vogue Health Initiative, so they agreed not to hire models under 16 or who appear to have an eating disorder. I think the indirect effect of the legislation is that we\u2019re not seeing so many children modeling clothing that is marketed to adult women. I don\u2019t think that should happen anywhere. What\u2019s wrong with using an 18 or 19 or 30-year-old model?<\/p>\n
I\u2019m 33 now, and I don\u2019t use any anti-aging products. I remember thinking about it from when I was in my teens, which is so messed up. That\u2019s the thing\u2014I feel like this industry can make women paranoid, but aging naturally is beautiful and isn\u2019t something to combat. We all get older if we\u2019re lucky, and I don\u2019t want to look 21. My mom is 65, and her skin looks amazing. She doesn\u2019t do anything.<\/p>\n
Everything that I do use, I get at the pharmacy. As I\u2019ve gotten older, my skin\u2019s evened out. It was really during modeling that I had skin troubles. It was the crazy international working schedule and not getting enough sleep that made it oily. Because\u2014and I don\u2019t know if the film really communicates this\u2014when you\u2019re the girl of the moment, it is short lived, and you feel like you have to make the most of it, so you work nonstop.<\/p>\n
If I have a little redness now, I\u2019ll use Laura Mercier\u2019s Secret Concealer, just in targeted spots. Pretty much every makeup artist I\u2019ve worked with uses Laura Mercier, so that\u2019s what I use. I\u2019ve learned a lot from makeup artists, but I really only use the simple stuff. Once I was on location for a shoot, and a makeup artist I was working with made this really great scrub just using brown sugar and coconut oil. It smelled amazing and was so easy to make\u2014I like stuff like that.<\/p>\n
There are some people who really like color, but I\u2019m honestly more toned down. One of my best friends, Caitriona Balfe, has always been more adventurous in that way. I envied her ability to do an amazing red lip, and she was always telling me, \u2018Ziffer, you need a little more color.\u2019 But I feel that\u2019s a different person. That\u2019s not me. Which isn’t to say I don\u2019t care about my appearance or that women shouldn\u2019t focus on that\u2014it\u2019s not a bad thing, but it should come from an empowered place. I think it\u2019s about having fun with makeup, like Caitriona showed me how. It shouldn\u2019t be something women feel they have to do because they fear getting older.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014as told to ITG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
‘About 15 years ago, I started shooting my experience as a model backstage with a little handheld video camera. I was 18 and dating an NYU film student, so the idea of documenting everything just became a habit. This was before Instagram or even camera phones existed. It was only a few years in, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[997,762,858,789,1036],"class_list":["post-10828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-interview","tag-into-the-gloss","tag-julia-stone","tag-sara-ziff","tag-the-model-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10828"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10831,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10828\/revisions\/10831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}