I have just found out I'm in the running for "Best Kinky Model" in the 2012 DDK awards!

Go cast your vote & have your say - click on the picture to go to the survey! 

Where do I start?

For a long time Ive been asked questions about modelling from young girls desperate to get into the industry, with misconceptions that the industry makes you rich, famous and glamorous.

Ive always tried to be honest and tell people that the majority of the industry is smoke and mirrors and although it might look glamorous the reality can be quite the opposite.

If i start at the beginning this may be a long read...so grab a cuppa and open your mind!

I never ever wanted to be a model, Growing up I wanted to be a doctor or a vet, I was adamant Id change the world. If you’d have told me aged 5 that I would be prancing around in Latex in 13 years Id have laughed at you.
 
Looking back I was such a tomboy, clad in “teenage mutant ninja turtles” t shirts and shorts, covered in bubblegum tattoo’s found hiding in a “Tree den” or skating in the local skate park - generally getting covered in bruises and grazes and having fun!
 
My family moved from South Yorkshire to my current town when I was 11. I started comprehensive school, pale, gangly and ginger (Shhh!) and with the broadest Yorkshire accent you could imagine, I'd also pretty much just discovered I needed glasses and had a lovely pair of thick purple “Timmy Mallet” glasses. It wasn’t easy to make friends I was bullied for my accent – Kids can be so cruel!
 
As the years went by I developed a small group of friends and we’d all sit outside the English block at lunch and break times, a nice bunch of girls and this group of girls is funnily enough how I discovered corsets and Latex..... I was at a sleepover one evening and Euro trash was on TV – the feature was on a stunning woman dancing with huge feather fans and wearing (not much of) a costume that made my jaw drop.
 
I was obsessed I kept asking about what I had seen and the “Lesbian” rumours started …bearing in mind when I was younger I had asked what “lesbian" meant and my primary school teacher told me it was a space alien….there I was aged 14 wondering why people were calling me a space alien – it was confusing to say the least.
 
Anyway I digress…. I continued in my studies still wanting to become a doctor and got through my GCSE’S. On the day I received my exam results I had gone into the town centre to celebrate and whilst in topshop was approached by a model agency. I refused the offer stating thanks but no thanks as I wanted to go to college and university….besides I liked corsets and seamed stockings I didn’t want to wear “high fashion”.
 
At college I started to develop my confidence and joined a band – at this point I was caught up in he whole Riot Grrrl scene, I wore slips and Mary Janes to college and could play any Hole song you wanted me to! I spent my time studying and playing guitar, lyrics started to adorn my college books/folder and that back of all my notebooks had lyrics Id written in them…..I also managed to save up and buy my very first corset and pair of 6” heels – this was by working my arse off in a hair salon at weekends sweeping up hair and washing people’s hair…Oh anyone out there who does this for a living I salute you- I had my fair share of pulling cigarette ends out of old ladies hair and cat poo ( yes!) out of children’s hair!
 
Somehow I got through my A levels and went to University (with my corset and heels in tow) and I guess that’s where everything really started. A friend of mine was studying photography and bugged me to pose for her. I did, I really liked the pictures and she ended up putting them online on a few photography forums and portfolio sites... That’s when the magic happened I was booked by my now best friend and extremely talented photographer Dean, we did a little shoot – I put the pictures up and got a bit more interest......
 

This is where the dangerous bit happens ….. When you’re a tad naive and photographers book you you don’t always realise that there are dangers out there. Sadly it seems like a right of passage in the industry to have had least one dodgy experience while you’re trying to get somewhere.

My experience happened when I was booked for a “Snow White” art nude themed shoot in Peterborough. I was in position (nude laid on the floor only covered by ivy leaves) when I opened my eyes to discover the photographer had stripped down to his boxers as he was “warm”…..me trying to be a professional (and having not really found my feet yet) carried on…..I opened my eyes again to find him trying to lunge in for a kiss …well that was it clothes on, packed up and release signed in an effort to just get out of there.  Looking back I can laugh but it seriously could have ended so much worse. I learned the lesson of getting references for every shoot I attend and ensuring that a chaperone would be present. Unfortunately its people that this that spoil it for the genuinely talented and lovely folk out there!
 
From there I developed myself as both a performer and a model. Traveling on packed trains for TF shoots to build up my portfolio and staying in some of the dodgiest hotels known to man for the privilege. I was determined I enjoyed what I did and wanted more, the ginger hair turned red and then black (and recently back to red ) as I found out what worked for me and that gangly girl in me started to learn how to pose and develop grace rather than just looking awkward as I did in so many early shoots.
 
Turning up on sets at 5/6am to ensure there was enough time for the perfect shot/ or the lighting would be perfect for the shot. Stood naked in the rain to get the perfect shot – freezing my metaphorical b*lls off to get the perfect shot, that position that looks great on shot – holding that long enough for the perfect shot…the position that hurts and uses muscles you didn’t realise you had. Balancing on a sea wall in ridiculously high heels for a shot – you do it because you’re passionate and it gets you an image to be proud of.
 
Going home and scraping tonnes of makeup off your face and having to drag a brush through your hair after a shot where it’s been excessively backcombed, to the point where you could almost cry because your scalp hurts so much.
 
It makes me smile when I see all these delusions of glamour from up and coming models who seem to think everyone lives a private jet and champagne lifestyle.

The hard truth is its hard work, the amount of traveling I do on a monthly basis is ridiculous and the hotel rooms I’ve stayed in – that’s a whole other blog in itself! Let me just tell you that the Hotel I stayed in last week – I had to put a chair against the door as the Yale was hanging on by one screw, there was no plug for the bath and the shower head wouldn't stay on the wall when you switched the water on!!!  
 
Social media (ahem Facebook for example)  has killed a lot of the industry along with magazines that prefer “self taken shots” submitted for free. Why would a magazine pay for a model and photographer and hire a studio etc when they can get girls to take pictures at home and submit content for free and then sell the content- genius idea! Girls don't even have to be scouted or signed to an agency these days to call themselves a "model" ....just have a friend with a camera. I'm not bitching here, I'm just pointing out how much the industry has changed over the last few years.
 
I guess what I'm getting at is paid work is dwindling, even girls I know that do a lot of high fashion catwalk assignments have a part time jobs in-between fashion seasons…why? Because there are too many people out there prepared to work for free and with the economy as it is the cheaper the better- but there is a saying that "you get what you pay for"

Why do girls work for free? Well we all have done it at some point on promises that the "exposure" will be good for you, or the fact that the "opportunity" is too good to pass up, but every time you work for free your validating peoples expectations that its reasonable to expect girls to work for free..to make money of photographs of a girl who isn't getting paid - do you see where I'm coming from?

There isn't enough money to make a living from this industry anymore...and while people are prepared to work for free to benefit other people's pockets there wont be. The truth is the only way to make money in this industry is to go into the more adult natured work ..I'm not against it, some of my best friends are in the industry Its just not the direction I want to go for myself.

By no means am I trying to dissuade people from getting into the modelling industry but I believe you should make an educated decision before you put all your eggs in one basket .

Get a career something that you will make a living from and think very carefully about your future...I know girls that have wanted to break away and take up careers in teaching and medicine but those topless pictures that they splashed about all over the internet when they were at college..yup..those harmless pictures put a stop to it.

You have to think very carefully about what you do and what you put out there..It may seem like a bit of harmless fun at the time but it can come back to bite you in the ass!

This weekend I shot for a promising new Latex Company called Black Sheep Latex.

The owner is a fabulously glamourous lady and has a great eye for design......and for a relatively new company the quality of the latex is outstanding - plus she chlorinates which makes life sooooo much easier!!!

Click on the pictures of me wearing Black Sheep Latex below to go to their Facebook page!

More shots to come so keep checking back!

Ive just completed a collaboration with Pandora Deluxe Latex and thought id pop a few pictures up for you to see!

The shoot was with my friend and talented photographer Dean Wilkinson who had to put up with me making bunny faces and throwing carrots around his studio!

More to come and will be added to the "Latex" folder.

Right Guys and Gals....

Im due in some new merchandise so I figured as a little celebration Id give a signed poster away.....

All you have to do is comment below and answer this simple little question:

From all my shoots which is your favorate latex outfit I'm in and why?
The winner will be picked at the end of the month!

UPDATE: 

The winner is ....

Zootz30 for your play on one of my favourite movie quotes! 
An email is winging its way to your inbox as i type!