Open your eyes and smile

November 24, 2014 4:30 PM

This wasn’t a reality show, nor was it one of the elite bookings Anna enjoyed back in New York or Milan. We were there for a fake beauty pageant, one our Beijing modeling agency had booked us for, telling us it was a “fashion show” and providing no further details. It was only after we boarded our early-morning flight to Ordos that the true nature of the event was revealed. “We’re on our way to another ‘Miss’ thing,” a Ukrainian girl said from her seat with a groan. I was hired as Miss America; Anna, despite being Brazilian, as Miss Chile. It would have been the strangest 36 hours of my life—if, over the previous two months, I hadn’t done it twice before.

Life as a Fake Beauty Queen in Small-Town China
posted by divabat (3 comments total)

An ex- of mine was hired to win a beauty pageant in a rural part of Chile. She was interviewed by the local press, and had to pretend she'd grown up in said rural parts. Wierd.
posted by signal at 5:22 PM on November 24, 2014

Same author, earlier this year: Fashionista - My Life Working As A Model In China. Has more in-depth discussions of the overlap with prostitution.
posted by benzenedream at 5:37 PM on November 24, 2014 [2 favorites]

Oh, wow. I read both and and the second article that benzenedream posted was much more haunting and dark.
posted by Juliet Banana at 8:22 AM on November 25, 2014