Suzanne Kay Wingfield admits she likes the money she has made modeling part time for the past 2 years. But for Wingfield, there are other benefits to being a model. "I get to travel to places I never would've gone and meet more people than I ever would've met otherwise," she says. Although the city in which her agency is based, Chicago, is primarily a catalog market, she has done other modeling in New York and spent last summer modeling in Europe.

Kelly Causey, who has modeled in Europe and Asia, also enjoys traveling. She has done different kinds of modeling, from runway to print to commercials. But no matter what the medium, she says, models, especially beginning models, like the star treatment they receive. "You have professionals who are making up your face and hair, and you might get to wear a $5,000 outfit," says Causey, of Georgia. "Sometimes, it's almost like it's not real; it's as if you're playing."

Not a day goes by that we don't see models, like Wingfield and Causey, somewhere--on billboards, at local department stores, on our favorite TV game shows. Only a handful of them are supermodels who earn millions and hold celebrity status. The vast majority of working models earn a comfortable living at best and are treated as celebrities only within the modeling industry, if at all.