Child models earning huge incomes in Australia

AT five years old Imogen Warr has been booked for more campaigns than some models five times her age.

Beginning her career at just under two years of age Imogen was a late bloomer in the child modelling world.

She started with small time stuff, entering a competition to model for a kidswear label in Melbourne.

Of course the blue-eyed toddler won the judges over, and they wanted her back. Soon several jobs were coming in each month.

Imogen needed an agent and mum needed an investment plan.

Three years later she’s featured in TV series, fronted campaigns for top children's wear labels, walked the runway for big companies like Target. She’s regularly flown interstate for magazine shoots and is this week preparing for her first fashion festival show at Melbourne’s Kids Fashion Week.

Agents have told news.com.au that kids can earn up to $10,000 for one job, an average of $200 for an hour of work, and earlier this week Fairfax Media reported child models can earn up to $50,000 annually.

“It’s not about the money, but Immy will certainly have a nice little nest egg for when she’s older,” mum Anna Warr told news.com.au.

“The jobs range from $100, to thousands of dollars, and some are just for free clothes, but we do it because she loves it,” she said.

Imogen is so in demand that Anna, who has signed her daughter up to agency Ikonic Kids, has to reject jobs.

Agency owner Danielle Larche had no interest in child modelling until her daughter, Ella, was cast as Carl Williams’ newborn baby in the first series of Underbelly at just six weeks old.

As with Imogen, when the jobs started rolling in, Larche realised her daughter’s new-found career was so lucrative, she made it her own.

“It’s just an extra-curricular activity for her, and I think it’s great for kids, great for their confidence,” she said.

“But with kids fashion so huge, and international kids fashion weeks such a success, for me it’s my business.”

Ms Larche has launched the inaugural Kids Fashion Week in Melbourne this week, taking cues from London and New York where kids fashion designers, and the child modelling industry, are in the grip of a boom.

Supplying kids to clients for billboards, TV campaigns and magazine shoots, she says her clients can earn up to $10,000 for one job.

“Some jobs, like a TV commercial that plays every year, or an image that’s used a number of times, the model will keep getting royalties so it goes beyond the initial rate which varies between clients,” she said.

Katie Mitchell is the manager of Munchkin talent agency which launched the careers of models who have become household names like Shanina Shaik and Ruby Rose.

She said reports that children could earn up to $50,000 from modelling annually were overblown, but with average rates at around $200 an hour for a TV or magazine shoot, opportunities that could develop into a full blown modelling career were certainly good money makers.

“Top paying jobs would be TV commercials, anything that has a point of sale display in stores and billboards, they would pay a lot more,” she said.

Ms Mitchell said big company campaigns like Target, Disney, and coveted baby roles in TV commercials were the most desirable jobs when it came to the parents.

But ask the kids and you might get a different story.

“If you ask the kids they would already say the jobs around toy sales because you get to play with the toys,” Ms Mitchell said.

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