Modelling for Guess Kids

A few days ago, I had the rather unexpected experience of watching my two youngest boys modelling for Guess Kids clothing. It was a “runway” show, without a runway, since it was actually in the Guess store in Pavilion, Kuala Lumpur.

Fintan, 9 and Tiarnan, 6, had been chosen to represent Guess Kids at a live in-store fashion show.  There had been no prior rehearsal, before the day, but on the day, the boys were shown what to do. They were asked to walk through the store to the doorway, where photographers were to be waiting, then they would pose. The lady from Guess Kids asked them to pose – and they duly threw funny faces and postures. This worried me a little since I was concerned that they might not do it properly, when it came down to it. Nevertheless, this was their lighthearted approach to the rehearsal.

Watching them get ready was funny. Both Tiarnan and Fintan had their hair styled.  Fintan was OK with his, since it merely accentuated his natural curls. He was comfortable with that. Tiarnan however, was most unhappy. They had made his hair spiky. When he saw himself in the mirror he was on the edge of tears.

“They are trying to make me look cool.” He said, most put out. “I don’t want to be COOL.”

I tried to persuade him that, actually, he looked very nice. He was, however, completely unconvinced. I had to have a word with the stylist and she duly restyled his hair sans spikes.

After posing for the cameras, they were to walk through the store to the other side, where a group of mothers and children would be waiting. There they were to pose for their customers.

After an hour or so, the show began. Fintan was the second last to be on show, Tiarnan the last. The other three models were all young girls. The girls went first.

To the sound of music, the kids walked through the store one by one. The girls were cute, but they didn’t seem to have a natural flair for the camera. That was not the case with Fintan. When he got to his first posing position, he did such a cool move with his arms that is difficult to describe – he grabbed at the lapels to his jacket, flicked them forward and folded his arms, in a lopsided way, with tilted head, all in one smooth motion. It looked so, dare I say it, COOL (which Tiarnan had so desperately not wanted to seem). Fintan was a definite dude, in that moment. His gesture was greeted with applause and the whirring of cameras.

Then Fintan went and posed in front of the mother’s and kids (who hadn’t seen his display) – and did the same thing, holding his pose at the end, with a very Brandoesque demeanour. The cheers were wild. The compere said: “It seems we have Justin Bieber, here!” The crowd roared louder still, appreciating the reference.

Then it was Tiarnan’s turn. He is the shyer of the two and I did worry about whether he would handle it. He was absolutely fine. He seemed to have learnt a bit about posing from Fintan, since he adopted lopsided folded arm pose, for the crowd – without the cool gesture before it and stared moodily into the cameras. He then did the same for the mothers and kids. This time the compere remarked: “Whaaah. So serious! Models these days, must not smile, but have to SERIOUS!” He then compared Tiarnan to the band One Dimension. Again the crowd appreciated the reference and cheered.

The boys changed quickly for their second set of clothes and repeated the procedure with some variation.

The crowd cheered them – yet they remained so cool in front of them. I felt a definite pride in their composure.

The boys were pleased to learn that they would receive clothes in payment and each, funnily enough, selected some of the clothes they had been asked to try on, for the show.

It was a good afternoon.  I think the experience was confidence building and showed the boys that they could manage themselves in front of a live crowd. As learning experiences go, I think that is one of the more valuable ones, for later life.

Well done my Guess Kids boys!

Posted by Valentine Cawley

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Tiarnan's way with the camera.

In recent months, Tiarnan, three (though he began this when he was two) has been doing something funny in front of the camera. Whenever a camera is pointed at him, a change comes over him. He drops his childishness, and adopts a serious demeanour. His face becomes all composed and mature and he looks into the camera, with wise little eyes. It is quite astonishing to see the fullness of the change. Then, when the picture has been taken, the usual Tiarnan returns: playful, fluid, mischievous and he rushes over to see the picture.

"Can I see? Can I see?" he will demand, then will study the image at the back of the digital camera, intently.

In the image, there will be this serious little boy with the wise eyes - and Tiarnan, seeing this will be quite happy, even though this doesn't express his inherent playfulness at all. It seems that Tiarnan is image conscious and has, in mind, a particular image that he wants to portray.

There are days, however, when Tiarnan is determinedly camera shy and refuses to be photographed, at all, as if he were some big star hounded by paparazzi...he will hide from the camera, or obscure the lens. Of course, when he is in such a mood, we give up on trying to photograph him. The pity of it is, that we miss good photo opportunities, at such times.

Photographing Tiarnan is like photographing a little actor. He poses for the camera, controls his image in it, decides what he wants to portray - then does just the right things to portray it. He even monitors the results closely, checking to see if he has succeeded in putting across his "public image". On those days when he doesn't like to be photographed (which are random and have no discernible pattern), he is again behaving like an actor - only this time, one who is in a private mood and doesn't want to yield to the paparazzi. Or perhaps he is just being shy, at times, for reasons of his own.

So, we have a mix of photos of Tiarnan. In some he is putting across an image he wants to portray. So, in a sense, these are not authentically him, of that moment - they are just how he wishes to be seen. The others are ones captured when he is not in a posing mood, or is unawares: these show a wider range of expressions and behaviours and embody him more fully.

I only hope that, many years from today, we are able to tell the posed photographs from the unposed ones and see in them, glimpses of the little Tiarnan he once was. It would be a pity if we were unable to see him as he really was, and were only able to see him as he wished to be seen (though, of course, this expresses part of who he is, as well...for how he wants to be seen, is a manifestation of his own self-image).

What is notable about his photos, though, is that he has a very expressive face. There are so many different "airs" to be seen in his images...so many different emotions, thoughts and expressions. On the evidence of this, it is telling that he poses as if he were an actor doing a publicity still, for he may just be one, one day. We will see.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and seven months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, five years exactly, and Tiarnan, twenty-eight months, please go to:http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind.

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