The World’s Top Models are Directing Change, Not Just in the Fashion Industry

Models aren’t the best known celebrities for getting their hands dirty and doing practical charity work but Models Direct modelling agency are pleased to see that more high fashion models are getting involved.

[UKPRwire, Thu Jan 21 2010] Models aren’t the best known celebrities for getting their hands dirty and doing practical charity work but Models Direct modelling agency are pleased to see that more high fashion models are getting involved.

Charity fashion shows and events are often attended by some of the world’s best-known models, whether as models or spokespeople. However, it’s a different thing entirely to travel across the world to experience first hand the lives of the people these charities are working to help.

Models are scouted all over the world, and some are choosing to go back to their roots and help charities with causes that reflect their backgrounds. These models include Tasha de Vasconcelos from Mozambique, Iman from Somalia, Alek Wek from Sudan and Natalia Vodianova from Russia. “Celebrities are socially conscious like everyone else, and often care about where they come from. It helps when they have a personal connection to a place,” says Marissa Buckanoff , chief of celebrity relations at charity Unicef.

Obviously this kind of celebrity endorsement is good for the charities involved, helping to raise awareness of the cause and even acting as a way to make charity work appear more glamorous.

Models Direct think it’s fantastic that model Tasha de Vasconcelos has been using her high profile status to help others. She has worked for numerous humanitarian causes but focuses her attention on the protection of disadvantaged children in areas stricken by war, poverty and violence, having experienced poverty and civil war as a child. “As her celebrity profile grew, she said, so did her desire to give something back to the troubled continent of her birth,” reports Tara Mulholland in the New York Times.

Of course it shouldn’t be forgotten that models such as Claudia Schiffer have been doing their bit for charity for years – it just hasn’t been reported as widely as the efforts of high-profile actors and musicians. Claudia Schiffer became a UK ambassador for Unicef back in 1997 and has since helped to raise money and awareness for the charity. In 2005 fellow model Elle Macpherson also became an ambassador, joining other celebrities including Robbie Williams, Sir Alex Fergusson and Ewan McGregor.

Whatever the reasons more models are choosing to work with charities, Models Direct are pleased to see it.



About Models Direct

Models Direct (http://www.modelsdirect.com) is a talent and model agency for female models, male models, teen models, child models and baby models for advertising, fashion, film, TV, promotional and photographic modelling work. We are a Government-regulated Model Employment Agency... not an online showcase, we're the real thing!

If you think you, or perhaps your partner, child, baby or pet, might be a suitable model for us to put forward for selection to appear in films, TV, fashion, promotions, advertisements and photographic modelling, please visit the website (http://www.modelsdirect.com/become-a-model) or call us on +44 (0)871 224 6000. Modelling can be great fun & often rewarding as a part time hobby.