Tuesday 5
August, 2008

After the whirlwind she's been caught up in, there's still one final hurdle for Kelly Knox to negotiate, and that is to convince elite model agency Take 2 to represent her. She's nervous about her prospects, having previously been told by the company's co-director Melissa Richardson that "in the real world, you're hips are too big and you're not tall enough".

Melissa explains that, despite Kelly's victory in the series, for this appointment she is going to be treated just like any other girl walking in off the street with aspirations to be a model. If the booking team at Take 2 decides that she has potential, each and every one of them will have to agree to take her onto their books and represent her. Even a single dissenting voice could spell an end to Kelly's chances.

First, a visibly nervous Kelly is given a grilling by the other co-director of Take 2, Gabriella Palmano, who asks her about the Rankin shoot, the other shoots in the competition, and takes a note of the model's height and measurements.

When the booking team finally meet, their discussions reveal the difficult and often harsh decisions that go on behind the scenes of the modelling business. Gabriella begins with what she Kelly Knox's "immediate cons - that she is twenty-three and five foot eight", stating that it this an unusally late age for a model to start her career, and that it would be preferable if Kelly was two inches taller. Melissa continues, pointing out that "she's not a five foot eight size eight either - she's a perfectly normal, healthy size ten to twelve, but then she doesn't have the height to balance that". In Kelly's favour, however, are "her beautiful eyes, tiny and nice little nose, clear skin - basically very good features".

There is debate about Kelly's disability, too, with Gabriella saying: "Let's be honest, we haven't seen a disabled person advertising a big product before, with her disability showing. But I'd love to be the agency that made that happen. We have to rely on the advertisers to be open-minded about this".

Finally, Melissa and Gabriella reappear to give Kelly their decision - Take 2 Model Management have unanimously decided that they would like to represent her. Looks like we're going to be seeing a lot more of the girl from Enfield ...

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