Photo: Sophie Elgort
I have wanted to write about the camp for a while, but to be honest, putting down a few sentences to describe the camp and what it does for you, doesn´t really cut it. You have to be there to truly understand, feel the empowerment, impact, love and kindness.
I travelled from Norway from a very small town with almost no experience in travelling abroad, and I must admit I was scared. Was it worth it? Was the money worth it? And I don´t believe I exaggerate if I say I probably dealt with all the worst "What if´s".
A couple of years ago, I started to doubt my possibilites in achieving what I dreamed about as a child, but after my experience at CRMC, I´ve begun to believe in myself again, my dreams, my beliefs, my worth and what a single human being can accomplish on this planet. Not just in modeling, but in life in general. Everything I want to achieve in my acting-career, my writing, my music and singing, and literally everything I have faith in and what I believe I was put on this planet to do. And for this I truly can´t thank Coco, James and the whole team enough. I am beyond grateful for everything the camp gave me; the classes, all the advice, the confidence and the friends of a lifetime.
Photo: Matthew Priestley
When I arrived at the Camp, I started off getting to meet James, some of the team and Coco herself. I had to fill out some forms about Covid and what kind of meals I wanted. (Which felt like such a luxury!) The place we stayed at was so beautiful as well - it truly felt like living in a dream. And don´t even get me started on the bed! (It was amazing!)
After filling out the forms we got to sit down with Coco one-on-one where we showed her our portfolios and she guided us in what she thought we needed in our portfolio as well as a confidence-boost, and what kind of vibe we were going for on our photoshoot next to the last day of the camp. I got YSL, Cool dude. Can you see it in the photo above? :-)
I also told her that I haven´t gotten so many professional jobs because I´ve always heard that I look more like an actress, which is not a bad thing considering that I also want to work as an actress, but when I also want to do modeling, I´ve felt let down by it. And to have the one and only Coco Rocha sitting in front of me, looking me in the eye, and telling me: "Wow, I don´t understand the acting part. You have some High Fashion features" was truly surreal.
After that, I had someone from the team showing me around, I got to meet my amazing roomate, and then we had dinner with cocktail attire. Everyone was so openhearted, excited and kind, and it was so easy to get to know one another and such a supportive group of people.
On the second day we both had pose- and runway-class with Coco. In pose class we worked on a lot of different feelings (and I actually cried my eyes out!) and ways to move and feel the music and it was so much fun! I learned that it really doesn´t matter what one person has said to you that they don´t like, or what you have "made up" in your mind what´s not a good photo, because we all like different things! That´s why it´s so important to just keep on trying new and different things, because suddenly there is someone that likes something that another person hasn´t. And your job as a model is to make your current client happy, not your past client, or a friend, family or someone else who has had an opinion of what´s good enough and not.
In runway-class we got to try out the Coco-Rocha-Runway method, and let me just tell you: it was hard! All the stigma around "modeling is just standing there and looking pretty" truly got another dimension after attending the runway-class! I got so much respect for supermodels after that, and also very inspired and motivated! But in this class, I also got to learn a very important lesson: Always behave like a professional, wherever you go, because as a model, you are always at work. And this is some of the things I tried to proceed on as a child and teenager, but after letting myself get influenced by people who thought it was a stupid thing to try to be on top all the time, I started to not care as much, and I think that attitude might have affected me to start doubt myself and my dreams.
Later that day we sat down with James where we got to talk about expectations versus realities in the industry, and I loved that it was put down so much time for this, so everyone could ask all the questions they wondered about, without it feeling like we had to rush anything. I was so relieved about this, because that was one of the things I was a bit concerned about - that it wouldn´t be enought time for all the questions and that I would end the class with sitting like a big question mark, and feeling like ´I don´t know what or how I can proceed in this industry´. Both James and Coco made you feel seen and heard, and I have so much respect for what they do and how they do it.
Next to the last day we had the big photoshoot-day, and I think we all were pretty nervous, but also so excited. This was the day where all the photos we had seen so many of on the instagram-page were going to be made. But this was also the day to just have fun and try out everything we had learned from the camp. And it was sincerely so much fun and such a surreal experience. To have a photoshoot in front of Coco Rocha, and her being literally hands on you to help you get the best photos, and giving you advice through out the shoot - truly truly something I will remember for the rest of my life and something I´ll tell my grand-kids someday. After the shoot we sat down with the photographer and Coco Rocha and talked about the photos while looking at them and she made me confident that I am fully able to work as a model, and even told me: "When people say that you look like an actress, it only means that you are more beautiful to most people" - which is a compliment, but also showed me that we can choose to look at the world and other opinions in our own way, to make our weaknesses our strengths and that the most important person to believe that you can achieve your dreams; is you.
Photo: Matthew Priestley
If you´re wondering: I am not paid to write this. This is sincerely and truly my honest review. And honestly, if you´re ever considering attending the camp: You will not regret it.