Rebecca Meyer
This 25-year-old had an incredibly terrifying encounter 13 years ago with a man claiming to be a modeling agent.
At the time, she was in middle school. One day after school, she visited her aunt before going home. She was walking from her aunt’s house back to her house, and the houses were only a block away from one another.
“It was starting to drizzle a little, so I remember finding it curious to see a man in a business suit and no coat or umbrella, walking seemingly to nowhere that would make sense (there weren’t any modeling agencies near this street, so him being on foot at about 6 p.m. seemed odd,” she said.
Suddenly, the man approached her and asked if she’d ever thought about becoming a model.
“At the time, I was about 12 and very goth, so, no, I obviously was not modeling. Something about this whole thing sent off alarm bells for me because it didn’t seem like any viable agent would ever approach any random young girl like this. What still strikes me about this was how he was carrying a ‘portfolio’ of his ‘models’ that he showed me to try and legitimize this proposal. But the pictures were a.) not of actual people but illustrations, watercolor paintings, architecture, or scenery, or b.) photoshoots taken from fashion magazines like Vogue he was passing as his own clients,” she explained.
Then, the man attempted to get her contact information. She told him that she’d have to discuss it with her parents first.
When she mentioned her parents, this seemed to make him nervous and less eager to talk to her. He didn’t even have a business card to give her like a real modeling agent would have had.
“Once I walked away from him, I remember running the rest of the way home,” she continued.
After she got home, she told her parents what happened, and they thought it was strange and concerning.
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