Despite the fact successful, 43-year-old actress Rebecca Romijn has maintained her flawless face and supermodel body, there is something aging her: her criticism of Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid, whom she says are merely social media stars, not true supermodels.
First of all, whenever anyone past the ability to check the millennial box complains about the influence of social media on society, they sound like a grandma griping about that “newfangled thing that all the kids are into.” Social media is here to stay and will continue to thrive and evolve. Let’s all deal with it, shall we?
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Next, just look at these two faces of their generation. Were they not born to be models? Their faces, bodies and long, long legs scream “catwalk.” If they had not been reality stars, thanks to their famous families, and simply teens hanging in a mall in Iowa, I guarantee you that some scout would have spotted them and whisked them off to Los Angles or NYC for test shoots.
And what if they are “social media stars” who one day woke up and decided they wanted to be models? Does Romijn not remember that she went from one career to another? How welcoming was the entertainment industry to yet another model-turned-actress? Didn’t she have to work twice as hard to prove to directors that she wasn’t just a pretty face? And that she could hold her own competing against actors who had graduated from places like Yale drama?
The star of The Librarians uses her fashion industry cronies, who are apparently equally as intimidated by technology as she is, to back her up; while also throwing shade at Vogue for being a “follower” by putting the Jenners and Hadids of the world in the magazine because, she says: “I rely on Vogue to set the standard.”
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Well, Vogue relies on ad pages to stay in business. Using models who are brand spokespeople only helps to show support for the companies that use them as a marketing vehicle. Companies like Balmain, Calvin Klein, Estee Lauder, Fendi, Givenchy, Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs and Topshop, who have embraced Kendall. And Guess, Maybelline, Stuart Weitzman, Tom Ford, Topshop and Versace call upon Gigi to rep them.
The work these two do — and I do mean work — doesn’t even include the runway shows they walk in for clients such as Chanel and Victoria’s Secret.
Name brands of this caliber aren’t hiring “social media stars.” They are hiring models who know what they’re doing. Now do their millions of social media followers help? Of course. Their “friends” will follow them to the brands they are the faces of. This is a plus, as well as a sign of our times.
I often think that my school years would have been easier if there had been cell phones and computers. I suspect Rebecca is having those kind of “if only” regrets that when she was a young model and blossoming actress, she would have had a smoother transition if she could have waved “millions of followers” in front of prospective employers to up her street cred.
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But just because she was born too early to take advantage of the influence of social media, it shouldn’t be taken out on today’s supermodels: Kendall and Gigi.
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