Flashback Friday! Wrigleyville Promotions!

We are days away from opening day and it's 70 degrees in Chicago today so this picture just makes sense. Last year the Chicago Cubs won the World Series and the city celebrated for weeks, the events never stopped. Can they win again this year? Hopefully! Team Pink Avenue

Best Clothes for Your Next Photoshoot

I love the color white, it is my first choice when getting dressed. My favorite outfit is a white t shirt, jeans and flip flops or a cute sandal, it fits my personality I guess. Back in the day when I did a ton of photo shoots I would want to wear white and every photographer would tell me how bad it is on camera. It's true, it made me look even more pale and just doesn't look good in pictures. As a promotional model you are expected to have professional and candid photos that are used to book trade shows and events. Here are a couple tips for your next photo session! http://elitedaily.com/life/culture/types-clothes-photograph-best/1807331/ Team Pink Avenue

How Pictures Can Come Back to Haunt You

I can relate to this article and I know a lot of other promotional models probably can to. When I was in college I bartended on the weekends, then was recruited as a promotional model which led to events, trade shows, photo shoots and print modeling. At the time I was so excited about all of the opportunity because I was 20 and not thinking of how it would make finding a career challenging. I posed for every mens magazine out there, Maxim, Stuff, FHM and even placed in the top 100 out of 1 million in a Playboy competition. At the time I was proud and it is still fun to think that I did all of those things but finding a career was impossible. I studied Marketing in college. I thought that it would be a career path that would allow me to use my personality, creativity, challenge me and would always be changing. That is all true. What I didn't think about was that most of the hiring teams would consist of women, women that google your name and find out everything about you. With so many social media outlets now this has to be even easier to find dirt. I'll never understand what posing for magazines has to do with my education or ability to work but it definitely has made things difficult. After college I moved to Chicago and landed an internship at a promotional modeling agency, moved up to the position of Director, quit and started Pink Avenue Models. I applied for numerous jobs with lots of companies and didn't even get a reply. This wasn't because my lack of education, I had a 3.96 GPA from a great school, have social skills, great work ethic and like to be the best at what I do. These companies will never know that because they didn't give me a chance to show them. When I saw this article today I could relate to her story and the constant fear of those pictures being leaked. It isn't anything that I would ever deny and I'm not ashamed but it's not something that I want determining my future. It is actually something to be proud of, not everyone is published in magazines. The topic is something that I talk to the younger generation of promotional models about, I want them to know what they are getting into. I hate how women are treated in the work place. If they are pretty they are judged and harassed, if they are overweight they are talked about, if they don't wear make up they are sloppy and lazy. Can't women just be women? Is it okay for women to be smart AND pretty? What would happen if men were judged EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. What if we brought up their past? Here we are again with the double standard. http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/a9141665/alejandra-campoverdi-congress-maxim-sexism/ Team Pink Avenue

Pick Your Promotional Modeling Agencies Wisely

The promotional models are at it again on social media. Today I saw a post on the Brand Ambassadors of San Francisco that talked about all of the new companies popping up. It's true, I have seen so many new companies the past couple of years but most of them don't last. You can only get away with screwing over the talent for so long. With new companies comes trust issues and of course payment issues. It is relatively easy and very affordable to start a promotional modeling agency. I think some are more trustworthy than others and that is what makes an agency great and long lasting or unfair and temporary. The main priority when it comes to a promotional modeling agency should be the promotional models, you can't run an agency without them. The post today was about working with unknown companies and having to fight for payment. We all know that you can make great money in this industry but sometimes you don't get that money for 90 days, and sometimes you don't get that money at all. Fighting for your money is annoying and happens way too often in this industry. What is happening is these agencies are booking clients, then booking models and not paying them, they are keeping the money and sadly get away with it. I wish there was a simple situation to this problem but there isn't. Promotional models want to work events and trade shows and they want to work a lot. My only advice is to stick to agencies that you know and have worked with in the past. Do your research! Ask other people in the industry if they know of the agency offering work, google them, the more you know the better. Be smart! Good Luck! Team Pink Avenue

ITW 2017 - Chicago!

It has been a long time since we have brought up the past but today is Friday and we're going to take a look back at past events. ITW is a convention that takes place in Chicago every May. We have staffed promotional models for this show for many years and the trade show keeps getting bigger and bigger. Here is a picture from last year when the team made the magazine! Team Pink Avenue

Happy National Women's Day!

Today is a great day and seeing posts from strong women around the world is so inspiring! Of course there are the asshole men out there trying to take this day away from us, I saw those tweets, FB posts and crappy comments on Instagram. We won't let that get to us, those are the guys that don't know what a woman is worth. (Insert middle finger emoji here) This picture sums up everything that I want to say today. Enjoy! Team Pink Avenue

Plastic Surgery is on the Rise

I saw an article over the weekend and at first I was surprised but then I thought about all of my friends that have had work done and it made sense. According to this article there were almost 1.8 MILLION cosmetic surgeries done last year. I think that is a lot. These surgeries consist of breast implants, lipo, nose jobs, and facelifts. This number does not include the simpler procedures like lip injections or botox, but there were 15.5 million of those procedures done last year. Last week we blogged about the pressure and expectations of being a woman. We mentioned that it is expensive and frustrating to try and liv up to these standards. Promotional models are expected to show up to an event or trade show hair and make up ready but investing in all of these plastic surgeries is not expected! Be you! Team Pink Avenue