Both my children have done modelling (DD for 4 years, DS for 1) with BubbleGum. mainly catalogue work for KMart and Target. Payrate was $80 per hour but the agent takes $12 of that each time. The annual fees ended up getting too high for us... after expenditures (including public transport tickets and occassionally specific clothing purchases for auditions etc) we only made a fraction more than costs. I think their fees this year are about $300 p.a. TinLids sounds very good in comparison! At least with BubbleGum you don't need to have a portfolio done... the photo headshot cost is incorporated into the annula fee. Babies don't go in the model book.

I must admit I've often found the whole process a bit frustrating. One time DD did a TV commercial as a background "extra" which meant spending the whole day on site (a parent in constant attendance) which was incredibly boring... all for $120 and the agent took some of that too. Catalogues are better because you can be in and out within 15 mins and still get paid for the whole hour... plus there is double-time for underwear and swimware shots.

I must say the people that actually take the photos have been great (especially at Huge Studios in Richmond). They are very good at making the children feel at ease. We've got some lovely catalogue images of our kids that they are going to be very proud of. My DD is fairly humble about it but secretly loves it when all her school friends come to school waving the latest Target catalogue with her in it! LOL

We're having a break from the whole thing this year (also because the fees are a bit beyond our tight budget)... but maybe next year after the new addition arrives i might do some more research into getting the kids involved again.

I must stress though... unless your child has specific talents, has done acting classes etc... don't see dollar signs. We've been to just as many auditons as 'paid jobs' and the preparation (eg learning lines etc) can be demanding and the disappointment a bit hard to deal with at times. Still, i must say i don't have any horror stories to relate over the 4 years they were involved.... more just minor irritations.

ETA: You can usually only be with one agent at any time (you sign a form promising this). Also nobody (including children) is taxed a cent until they earn $6000 so you would have to earn more than that to claim the cost of fees etc. I've yet to meet anyone who's made any serious money from early childhood modelling.... the money starts to come in with talents like acting etc (which of course cost money to develop). Also I'll eventually put up the images of my children modelling on my website. Target and KMart have online catalogues which you can copy the images from for your collection.

ETA #2: Added an image of my DD modelling in a Target catalogue to my website.