The search for an ESSENCE cover model--one who might even become the next Naomi, Alek or Kiara--was a fierce one, but we accomplished the mission.

Last September ESSENCE and Wilhelmina (the agency that launched the careers of Beverly Johnson, Cynthia Bailey and Tracy Ross) joined forces to discover a fresh face with model potential. What followed: mail-ins, regional model calls and a five-city mall tour. More than 7,000 hopeful sisters entered the contest.

With masterful makeup artist Sam Fine and photographer Matthew Jordan Smith included among the regional judges, Wilhelmina and ESSENCE staffers selected the ten finalists, who competed in New York in April.
Duane Gazi, director of new model development at Wilhelmina, says youth, versatility, height and beauty will get models in the door, but they need an extra something to break out into the big time. Enter 18-year-old Aladrian Crowder, the $50,000 Grand Prize Winner. "Aladrian looks as if she could be from a number of places--Africa, the Caribbean, the UK," says Gazi. Aladrian is, in fact, from Owings Mills, Maryland. "I didn't expect any of this," says the young student, who plans to major in chemical engineering at the University of Delaware in the fall.

Twenty-six-year-old Pamela Reed, second runner-up and longtime ESSENCE subscriber, landed a $30,000 contract. She entered the competition because she trusted the magazine. "I knew it wasn't a gimmick," says the Birmingham, Alabama, native. The judges loved her confidence and genuine bright smile.

Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation, Orlando, Fla.: Supports the development and use of the Realistic Global Battlespace for training, analysis, acquisition, test and evaluation and operations. Implements Air Force. joint and Department of Defense modeling and simulation policies, architectures and standards: supports corporate Air Force M&S planning, requirements and investment, facilitates the establishment, transition and integration of major Air Force M&S initiatives and programs. and shapes decision making, mission rehearsal and execution. Supports cross-cutting initiatives such as Distributed Mission Operations and the Center for Domain Integration and promotes and supports technology improvements. Oversees the M&S professional development program and sponsors the annual Air Force M&S conference. Manages M&S Information Service, which includes the Air Force M&S Resource Repository, Event Planning System, M&S calendar, and the M&S help desk. The C4ISR Visualization Center is the AFAMS Pentagon Operating Location. The CVC provides senior leadership with a portal into Air Force and joint training events, experiments, wargames, real-world events and facilitates demonstrations of new and emerging technologies.

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.