There is a lot to know about me. Really!
in the studio.
What are you looking for? Someone to give you words of insight about the entertainment business and kids, Simple Green Life, OR what about having a life that brings a smile to your face every single morning? Well you finally found me!
Here is the long about me…
Model, now simply a Model Citizen!
For 18 years, I wore designer threads, collaborated and strutted around designers, posing for the camera, running from one audition to the next fitting to the next job. Oh, yes I lived the life – life in Hollywood, hanging out with the famous from photographer Herb Ritts and eating turkey dinners on Thanksgiving with Sharon Stone to passing out sleeping bags to the homeless with Patricia Arquette on Christmas and even dancing cheek-to-cheek with designer Tom Ford. Yes, the model life can be filled with glamour and the “who’s who” crowd. For the most part, I was charmed by it.
But then life Crumbled and it all became much more real. After 13 years of being a model I was struck with an illness. I was forced to take a two-year holiday – some called it a hiatus to recover from my illness –anorexia. During this time, I traveled far and long in search of inner peace, quietness and recovery. At one point, I landed in a Buddhist temple deep in Thailand to discover a wooden pillow that became comfort. I was served mushy gray porridge daily with ants that walked the rim of the dried, hollowed coconut bowl. There I learned about solitude, isolation and personal commitment to helping others before thinking of myself. I worked with young girls, teens and women who sought a better life and found refuge in an organization called The Goodwill Foundation. As volunteers, we attempted to teach and provide a program of education and life skill sets to help get them off the streets and to reform them from what they were either sold into (a brothel of prostitution) or wandered into because of the general lack of opportunity for women in Thailand. That was a time for me for experiencing pure gratitude and that provided an educational experience that forever changed my life. I travel back to Thailand and South East Asia once a year to help change a community that helped change me.
After those years I of gaining “perspective”, I realized that I no longer wanted to be under the scope, but I wanted to continue to help others in the U.S. as I had in Thailand. I began to produce large commercial campaigns for such clients as MSN, LeapFrog, Sprint, HP, and Dow. I worked with big budgets, pro commercial photographers, $1500 per day make-up stylists, and plenty of kids who starred in these campaigns and their parents. Magic began to happen with these moms,dads and kids on the set. They began asking me about my career, how I had handled the industry, how to attain success, how to make it last for as long as possible; they also seemed to always ask about my life experience in general. People inquired, I answered and gave advice where I could make a difference. Easy.
Here is where helping kids and teens began to fall into place for me. The years of my personal trials and tribulations: the wooden pillow, the long stints of meditative silence, my hair falling out, weight gain, weight loss – all of these experiences became the tools in which I could use to educate and enrich kids and teens facing the challenges of life in the entertainment industry.
I created More Than a Model: Model Citizens (MTAM) with the intention of creating more awareness for kids and teens. I, along with many other top models have struggled in this industry, especially when I first began the journey and even more so when success began to fall upon me. I struggled with body image, weight and addictions to substances in order to be thin, beautiful and to live comfortably within the “in crowd.” I look back and wish that there was an MTAM organization to have guided me through the tricky processes of the industry and with life in general.
Creating Healthy Choices!
As a part of More Than A Model: Model Citizen I review the importance of health and body image. Sometimes it’s difficult to hear this from Mom or Dad, but provides me with the perfect opportunity to expose kids and teens to healthy alternatives through my workshops. Unfortunately, image is a large part of this industry and our society, but I am able to discuss this topic in a straightforward, educational and healthy manner. In creating these workshops, I have used every ounce of my personal experience, as well as from other top models, who are my dear friends and great mentors. These workshops step away from the high-pressure ideas of what magazines, big budget, air brushed ad campaigns, and Hollywood tell us and focus on, “The Essential Face”, “Our Presence, Poise and Pose”, “Living Green”, and “Loving The Body You Live IN”.
Kids and teens can be model citizens and are more than just pretty faces. They have words, ideas, and concepts that are important to the world. Being a model has allowed me to express and share many of these ideas with fashion designers, art directors, writers, painters, other models, and photographers. We all need to be heard, as well as be seen. In all of the workshops, I create opportunities for the kids and teens to share and express themselves.
Along with working with Kids I have the opportunity to teach families about Green Living and simplifying their homes. Over the past couple of years by the teaching the Green workshops to the kids has led many families to becoming more aware and more empowered with knowledge, information and a true desire to make a difference in their own home as well as their communities. Many of the families have saved a considerable amount of time and money by engaging in the workshops and consultation. Being Green doesn’t have to be look and sound so difficult and non-intriguing! I look forward to working with you and your family.
Best,
lane
My modeling experience includes working with the following designers and brands for years:
Levi’s
Gap
Banana Republic
Donna Karen
Laundry
Guess
Leon Max
BeBe
BCBG
Max Azria
Mica
Eileen West
Eber
Buyer
Mervyns
Jessica Mcclintock
Polecei
Mango
Kenwood
Sprint
HP
Symantec
Fairmont Hotels
Glad
MSN
Cranium Games
