Recently the lid has been lifted a little on an industry that already has a reputation for being tough on vulnerable young women.

　　模特行业对脆弱年轻女孩的摧残早已人尽皆知，近日公众对这一行业又产生了新的关注。

　　Not only was it announced that five of the UK’s top modelling agencies are being investigated for fixing prices but one of those agencies, FM London, has gone into liquidation with dozens of models potentially affected.

　　这不仅仅由于英国五家顶尖的模特公司因规定价格而接受调查，而且其中一家名为“FM伦敦”的公司已破产，数十名模特可能受到影响。

　　That’s unlikely to break the stride of the industry’s most high-profile models, the Cara Delevingnes and Kate Mosses of this world.

　　这件事情并不会阻挡业界知名度较高的模特的脚步，如Cara Delevingnes和Kate Mosses。

　　But there are thousands of young women and men working in the industry with a much lower profile and income. And questions are being raised over how well these jobbing models are being treated by the agencies who are supposed to represent their best interests.

　　然而，这个行业中还有成百上千的年轻男女拿着微薄的收入，毫无名气可言。很多人开始质疑，这些本应维护职业模特权益的公司究竟如何对待他们的员工。

　　We asked three London-based models what it is like trying to make a living in the industry.

　　我们采访了三位在伦敦工作的模特，他们讲述了职业模特的生活。

　　"Lauren" is 24 and has been modelling for five years. She doesn’t want to give her real name as she fears her agency would offer her less work if she speaks out. She says pay rates have fallen in recent years.

　　“Lauren”今年24岁，已经当了五年模特。她不愿透露真实姓名，因为担心如果说出了实情，模特公司给她的工作机会就更少了。她说近些年工资水平一直在下降。

　　All the first jobs I did were free. When you do a commercial job for a High Street brand or a big ad campaign they pay money, but editorials - everything you see in industry magazines - you don’t get paid for those at all. It’s an unwritten rule in the industry that you have to do them to get your profile up.

　　我所有的第一份工作都是没有报酬的。比方说你去给一个大众品牌或大型广告活动做商业宣传，虽然他们会付钱，但是你在行业杂志里看到的所有评论-你一分钱也拿不到。这是业内不成文的规矩，你必须靠这个来提高知名度。

　　You’ve got quite a lot of girls who can’t afford to live and are going to the agencies to ask for advances on money and are getting into debt. The bookers laugh at them for asking for handouts.

　　周围有很多女孩子无法维持生计，只能向公司要求提前支付工资，使自己身负债务。经纪人还会嘲笑她们请求施舍的行为。

　　They try to discourage you from collecting your money and put you off asking for it.

　　他们搜刮你的钱，在你要钱时却赶你走，让你深受打击。

　　When you get your money it comes with a statement and there are always unforeseen charges on the statement. It’s never set out what they’re charging you for and the more you’ve earned the more weird charges there are on your account.

　　拿到工资时会有一张清单，上面总有一些莫名其妙的手续费，但是从未写明到底因为什么收费，而且你挣得越多，账上扣掉的莫名其妙的费用就越多。

　　Agencies pick and choose. If they don’t like you that week then they won’t put you forward for the job. I’ve been in the agency when they’ve actually said not to put certain girls in certain packages because the girls have been annoying them or they’ve been asking for money.

　　公司很挑剔。如果这周他们对你有意见，就不会给你提供工作机会。我在公司就听到过他们说不要给某某女孩提供某某工作机会，因为她们惹恼了公司或者是向公司开口要钱。

　　Some agencies are really good, they pay their girls every Friday, but in my agency we have to message our accountant every month to find out if any money has come in. Half the time they lie to us and say the money hasn’t come in even if the client has told us they’ve already paid the invoice.

　　有些公司真的很好，他们每周五准时发放薪水，但在我们公司，我们得每月给会计发短信问客户有没有付款。通常他们会撒谎说没有钱进帐，即使客户告诉我们他们已经支付了费用。

　　It’s quite sad because when you join an agency you like to think it’s like a family, but they’re out to make a profit. You have to bear that in mind and not get sucked into the idea that they have your best interests at heart. They don’t when it comes down to it.

　　这一点令人伤心，因为你加入一家公司，你会希望它像一个大家庭，但是他们心中只有利益。你必须牢记这一点，不要认为他们真心为你的利益着想，归根结底他们只认钱。

　　"Pippa" started modelling when she was 14 and living abroad. She went back to it aged 18 and back living in the UK, to help pay for her law degree. She says the first agency she worked for treated her very badly.

　　“Pippa”14岁就开始从事模特职业，一直在国外生活。18岁回到英国后，她重操旧业来支付法律学位的学费。她说她工作的第一家模特公司对她特别差。

　　Modelling is a really horrific industry to work in if you don’t have anything else going for you.

　　如果你没什么过人之处，模特这一行业真的很恐怖。

　　There’s constant pressure over weight control: it’s a form of control and grooming.

　　体重控制是一个持续存在的压力：它是一种控制和修饰。

　　I was 5’11" and size 8-10 and they told me I had to lose 3cm off my hips.

　　我曾经5’11"，尺寸是8-10，他们却告诉我臀部仍需减掉3cm。

　　They phoned me up every day and asked me what I had eaten that day. I’d go in for a chat and they’d measure me and say you need to lose this much more weight.

　　他们每天打电话问我吃了什么。我和他们交谈时，他们会测量我的三围，告诉我需要减掉多少重量。

　　They said I had to get a personal trainer, which was pounds100 for four sessions, and made me dye my hair. They said I had to go to the hairdresser they picked and it was pounds400. After three months they said, you’ve just got to lose two more centimetres [off your hips] and you can be on our main board in Paris.

　　他们说我必须请个私教，每四期课程100英镑;他们要我染头发，还让我去他们挑选的发型师那里做头发，要花费400英镑。三个月后他们说，你只要再减掉2cm(臀部)就可以进入我们巴黎的核心团队了。

　　They’d send me out for test shoots to men’s apartments on my own and it was really unsafe. One time the man was really weird and kept trying to make me take my clothes off.

　　他们把我一个人送到男性的私人公寓做试拍，真的很不安全。有一次那个男人非常古怪，一直让我脱掉衣服。

　　There was a casting for a lingerie company. My agent said, you have to do it. I said, I don’t want to do that because if I’m on an ad spanking someone I won’t get a job in law. They pressured me. So I quit.

　　还有一次，有个内衣公司的广告要拍，公司让我必须去。我不想接这个工作，因为如果我出现在一个有打屁股镜头的广告里，我没可能得到一个法律相关的工作。他们给我施加了很大压力，最后我辞职了。

　　I was eight months with that agency and I didn’t make any money.

　　我在公司待了八个月，一分钱没挣到。

　　"Pippa" says she worked for two further agencies where she wasn’t happy, and earned around pounds10,000 a year. But she is now with an agency she is very happy with and is earning pounds800 a day and getting regular work.

　　“Pippa”说，她后来又去了两家模特公司，但都做的不开心，每年挣1万英镑。她在现在的模特公司做得很开心，每天挣800英镑，有固定工作。

　　Rebecca Pearson is happy to give her real name because her experiences have been mostly positive, although earlier in her career she also encountered late payment. She has been modelling for more than a decade.

　　Rebecca Pearson乐于给出真名，因为她的经历大多都是积极正面的，虽然她早期职业生涯中也曾遇到过拖欠工资。她从事模特行业已经十多年了。

　　It can be a harsh industry full of rejection. But I’m really glad I modelled. It gave me a lot of confidence. It bought me a flat and put me through university.

　　这是个残酷的行业，可能会四处碰壁，但我很高兴我坚持下来了，它为我带来了满满的自信。我买了房子，还上了大学。

　　But I’m glad I started when I did.

　　我真的很开心我一开始就从事这个行业。

　　There were so many more clients, there was so much more money in advertising. The fees you could get for a commercial were huge.

　　那时候有很多客户，广告费很高，参加商业活动的出场费也非常高。

　　I don’t think regular working models now are getting the opportunities I had at that stage. I did campaigns for most of the shops on the High Street but now it’s celebrities who do the High Street campaigns and magazine covers that we used to get.

　　现在的职业模特就没有我那时候那么多的机会。大多数商店的大众品牌代言都是我做的，而现在这些代言以及杂志封面都换成明星来做了。

　　I did a big campaign for New Look and was in all of their shops. It must have totalled around 35,000 pounds over about seven years. Now I’d say most regular models are getting paid less and less for more and more work.

　　我为New Look做过一个大型代言，遍布他家所有的分店。七年左右的时间总收入约35000英镑。现在的模特挣得越来越少，工作却越来越多。

　　You’re expected to do longer hours and do the whole social media thing. If you have fewer than 10,000 followers on Instagram you’ll lose the job to someone with more followers, as they can give the brand a broader advertising reach.

　　你需要工作更长时间，而且要维护社交媒体。如果你Instagram上粉丝低于1万，你可能会丢饭碗，而那些粉丝更多的人会得到工作，因为他们能够为品牌做更广泛的宣传。

　　There are so many new agencies and so many more models than there used to be, many agencies get undercut by smaller ones and there’s always someone who’ll do it for less.

　　现在模特公司和模特越来越多，很多公司被其他的小公司低价恶性竞争，总有人愿意以更低的价格成交。

　　There is a groundswell of people speaking up from within the industry. People have been reluctant to before because they didn’t want to be seen as a moaner, it can lose you work.

　　行业内敢于说出真相的人越来越多。之前人们不愿意说出真相，因为他们不想被看作抱怨者，而且这可能会丢掉饭碗。

　　And as for those outside the industry, they say, ugh, she’s being a princess. They assume we’re all Linda Evangelistas not getting out of bed for less than $10,000, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

　　对于业外人士而言，人们会说，哇她简直是个公主。他们认为我们都像Linda Evangelistas，出价低于1万美金就不起床，但那和现实相距十万八千里。

　　The average is probably around 20,000 pounds to 30,000 pounds per annum. We’re not moaning, we’re just calling for regulation in certain areas, especially because many models are so young.

　　实际上模特行业平均年薪在2-3万英镑。我们并非抱怨，只是希望某些领域能够加强管理，尤其这个行业有这么多年轻人。

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