We've been down this road with easy child 2/difficult child 2. Years ago I was also signed to an agency, but I never got any work from them. The mob I was signed with were also only in it for the money.
Some general advice from our experience and the positive stuff we learned form easy child 2/difficult child 2, as well as the "we got burned" lessons:
1) AVOID AGENCIES THAT ADVERTISE IN BIG LETTERS. Because EVERYONE wants to get into modelling and acting, they want to be paid money and therefore thay are ripe for exploitaiton. The agencies you want are the ones who have so many people beating a path to their door that they don't NEED to advertise. The ones that are exploitative are the ones that make teir money from the hidden joining fees (the fees they're not supposed to charge). The more people they sign up, the more money they make.
2) you need to check out the industry and work out where her niche would be. In the meantime, she needs to get some training. More later. To check out the industry - look around. Do a search online to get a list of all agencies etc, then keep that list on your own spreadsheet. Now your homework begins. Go through the newspapers looking for ads. Any agency with a large newspeper or TV ad - put a black mark against them. Next, ask the stores where they get their models from. Then ring those places and ask them things like, "what age do you hire? what commission do you charge? What sort of work do your clients do?" and so on. Pick their brains.
3) She will need headshots, full body shot and a CV. For the headshots, you should not use glamour shots (a common mistake). If you can get access, look at other people's head shots and see if you can duplicate them for her. It's fun to practice! We paid for easy child 2/difficult child 2's head shots for a few years. THAT is where the unuscrupulous agencies make a lot of money - they have their own photographers on staff to do the head shots, but tey charge as if you're getting them done by a freelancer. If you're a photographer who works independently donig head shots then you have overheads to pay for - studio, computer time, technicians, printers - a lot of stuff. But economies of scale means that the job can be done much more chealpy if you already have the premises, the computers and the printers. And of course a good agency will always have thier own printers so they can print out a fresh headshot whenever it's needed.
4) In Australia (and undoubtedly in the US) there are some websites which you really do need to sign up for, if you want the chance of getting work. The person looking for actors or models goes to the website (which is restricted to people in the industry, such as other agencies, directors, producers, casting agents etc) and they search for someone who fits the profile. When they get a collection of people who are likely, the word goes out to those people's agents to come in for an audition or screen test. So if you're not registered, you're not going to get seen. And it costs - ours costs between $80 (for website listing ony) to $200 approx (to be in the book, hard copy, as well).
I mentioned the mass-production "in it for the money" agencies before who sign up anything thta moves - although our agencies are not allowed to chage a joining fee, it still costs you. The money that charge covers the Showcast (websigte plus book) listing, plus the headshots. One place we went to (and didn't sign up, although they wanted us) had a large comfortable waiting room with leather couches and wide coffee tables. The coffee tables were groaning under the weight of thick books full of headshots and CVs. It was as if every phone book in the country for the last ten years had been piled onto the table. I did not see a duplication anywhere and they all had that year's date on them. So what we saw was a comprehensive compilation of the actor/model file. With so many people on the books, there was no way they could get enough work for them all. Most of thep eople in those books would have paid the fees and never heard from the agency again - until it was time to take new headshots.
5) easy child 2/difficult child 2 was originally signed with a reputable boutique agency with a small exclusive client list. They limited their list to 50. They published a fresh book each year (which required head shots to be taken by their photographer, although he is one of the best in Sydney and specialises in performers' headshots). We got a copy of the book, plus they sent them to all the casting agencies around. She got a few audition calls, a couple of big jobs through them. One print ad won a gold Lion at Cannes - here is a link, look for "University: braces"
http://www.advertolog.com/paedia/prints/2001/01/01/24370/
However, we had problems with that agency never paying her what they owed for work done. The law in our country says that when the money comes in to the agency it should immediately be put in a trust account. The agency takes out their commission and WITHIN TWO WEEKS should send the remaining (should be 90% for agencies) to the performer. We made discreet enquiries and found that other performers were getting the same experience. Because it was an agency for children, and too many parents are scared of making a fuss for fear of upsetting people who not only seem very nice but who also are capable of either putting more work your way or blocking more work form coming your way, they were getting away with it.
easy child 2/difficult child 2 did eventually get paid.
In the photo in the link I've posted, they "uglified" her deliberately. It worked really well. The agency were good in that they gave us some great instructions on how to present herself for that particular screen test - they warned us to make her look dorky and a swot. They suggested the glasses (her reading glasses) and the braids. She decided to do her buttons up, to tuck her shirt in, to fold down the tops of her socks - she got the idea and ran with it. It didn't pay a huge amount but when the ad got run again the following year she got a "rollover" fee.
So look at headshots, try to duplicate your own. B/w seems to be the norm although we currently have easy child 2/difficult child 2's (and difficult child 3's) in colour. They don't have to be smiling into the camera, they don't even need to be looking into the camera. A headshot requires a head and shoulders only, then you need a full body shot especially for modelling. Find out what modelling will require, you need a range of shots to work from. A plain background is required. You can get this by throwing a plain curtain over a fence and taking a photo that way.
6) Getting other experience - it helps to get her into anything related. Dance classes sound great. Drama classes are also good. Good for self-esteem, great for experience. Also, singing lessons can teach voice production, how to stand, how to handle an audience.
7) Keep a good record of all that she does that could count towards a CV. We keep easy child 2/difficult child 2's CV updated constantly. I took some notes of the headshot produced by her former agency and did some homework. Towards the end of our relationship with them they were getting slack and I actually got my hands on her headshot/CV that they had puttogether. I took notes, fixed up the mistakes and now I've done a desktop publishing job on it using her headshot and listed work she's done in various categories. Also under the photo, you list her measurements, her age and contact details.
In easy child 2/difficult child 2's case (because she was interested in acting) we did the best to get her experience as broad as possible. She had done a lot of stage (because of her dance school as well as at school), some street theatre work (especially with kids), had the photo experience, but needed to get experience on film. So we were recommended to do student films. In general students need cast who don't get paid but who can then use a copy of the film in their showreel and on their CV. The second student film easy child 2/difficult child 2 did, she played the lead role - a psychotic teen who murders her sister. It has been good on her CV. She's done a number of good roles including good speaking roles but reached a point where she had enough film work on her CV and said, "That's it. No more student films unless I get paid."
8) One last point - your daughter's height will be important. Catwalk models need to be taller than average. If she's average height or shorter she can do catalogue work and petites work. There also may be age limit issues, a lot of places increasingly are insisting on models being at least 16 or 17. But in the meantime she should still be able to dip her toe in the water to see if hse likes it. ANd yes, done right and with your supervision, it should bosot her self-confidence.
Parental supervision is not only permitted, it is mandatory. In general I was present for all of easy child 2/difficult child 2's jobs. There was one TV job (extra work for a soapie) where I was not allowed in the studio which was awkward, she had no money to pay for her lunch (which also should have been included). I found out later I could have made a huge fuss. But this is a job in HUGE demand for teen actors, there is always the fear that if you make a fuss thne you will get blacklisted.
We made a fuss about the agency that was giving us such trouble. We knew we were taking a chance we'd get the "you'll never work in this town again" routine and to a certain extent it did happen. We had a lot of trouble finding her a new agent. One actually signed her up, sent her for the headshots but next morning I got an email cancelling it all. She finally went independent for a year or so then was approached (via the Showcast register) by an agent just setting up who had been burned on behalf of his daughter the same way we had.
One last important point - if she gets to the stage of having an agent, then also have her join any professional agency. easy child 2/difficult child 2 isnow a member of Actors Equity and this has been invaluable. They fought to get her paid for a particular job which was becoming exploitative, and she's also been invited to a couple of industry events. Of course, she wanted someone to come with her so I got to go too. It was an amazing experience, mixing shoulder to shoulder with the cream of Australia's performing arts industry.
The US situation is going to be subtly different but there will be enough similarities so that we can help you along the way if you need it.
There are important social lessons to learn along the way, especially in how to deal with fellow models/actors at auditions. You do help one another and show good manners to one another. If another girl gets the job you wanted, there should be no meanness about it. That took a while to teach to easy child 2/difficult child 2. She attended one particular audition and was miffed when someone else got the job, it was a particularly public performance (Sydney Olympics OPening Ceremony) and for ages, easy child 2/difficult child 2 was snide about te girl who got te job. As were a lot of other people, the poor kid copped a lot of flak. I finally got through to easy child 2/difficult child 2 in several ways;
the girl who got the job was much more skilled than easy child 2/difficult child 2, she was smaller and cuter (a bit - but a bit matters) and although easy child 2/difficult child 2 has an impressive resume, this kid's was even better (did her first professional performance at age 5). And the final clincher - no matter who got the job, they would hae copped public criticism that was undeserved. Did easy child 2/difficult child 2 really think she could have handled that?
Since then she has stepped up to champion this girl, to tell people, "Leave her alone, she's good at what she does."
A very important lesson.
Marg