Every year, hundreds of Canadian models travel overseas with dreams of high-fashion catwalks, glossy photo spreads and easy money.
For many, those dreams die fast amid the grimy realities of life as a low-end shill: dirty apartments, manipulative agents, sexual advances, poor pay and degrading work.
One of the disillusioned may have been Diana O'Brien. Prior to her mysterious death in Shanghai on Monday, the 22-year-old Saltspring Island native had complained to friends about being booked for debasing gigs, such as dancing on podiums.
Those in the industry say such experiences are hardly out of the ordinary.
"So much of the business is simple exploitation of girls," said Barbara Pilling, a former model who now runs Edge Models, a small agency in Victoria. "These girls should be going to university, not posing at conventions."
Ms. Pilling says that most Canadian modelling agencies attract large numbers of girls with promises of travel and a glamorous lifestyle.
Then the agencies charge them exorbitant rates for test photo shoots and mandatory model training.
"One local agency here in Victoria charges $1,600 per test shoot and makes these poor girls pay for three separate tests," Ms. Pilling said. "They take so much money from these girls up front that they'll likely never make back."
Things don't get much better for models who do land overseas contracts. When Rande Kanne, a Saltspring Island model who went to high school with Ms. O'Brien, was awarded her first gig with an agency in Milan, she was looking forward to living in stylish digs alongside fellow models. Instead, the Italian agency put her up in a "very old and very dirty apartment. I didn't bring my own sheets the first night and ended up sleeping in a dirty bed."
The agency eventually moved Ms. Kanne to a more sanitary building, but not without docking her pay.
"They take a portion of your pay for everything: the room, test shots, various fees. I didn't make any money in Milan. I still owe the agency money."
Penury is a common trait among foreign models, according to Ms. Pilling, who says she was often lodged at YMCAs at the beginning of her career.
Because of those fiscal constraints, many young models consider turning down jobs tantamount to career suicide.
Ms. Kanne refused a number of jobs while working in Italy, something that disappointed her mother agency back in Victoria, Barbara Coultish Talent & Model Management, which also represented Ms. O'Brien.
Barbara Coultish generally has a good reputation for looking after models, according to Dan Grant, author of The Canadian Model's Resource and publisher of modelresource.ca, but, "That agency will take a long time to recover from this."
The agency was not responding to interview requests.
Mother agencies maintain local Canadian offices, but shop their models to agencies around the world. Depending on the contract, the agencies take between 20 and 60 per cent of a model's total income.
Ms. Kanne feels many mother agents don't adequately warn models about the realities of life overseas. "Mine warned me about drugs, but not the party scene," she said. "Guys, club promoters mainly, were always trying to take you to clubs for free and give us free drinks. It was very easy to put yourself in an unsafe situation."
"The mother agency should be there to protect you," said Ms. Pilling, who began modelling at 14. "The business can be a cesspool and that's what an agent has to do."
There is much to protect against. During her time as a model, Ms. Pilling said she had random foreign men pulling down their pants in front of her, one Italian agent who drugged her cocktails and several photographers who made inappropriate advances.
"It can be a real Gong Show for a model out there," Ms. Pilling said. "If every parent knew what their child was getting into by modelling there's no way they'd let them go."
Patrick White