AussieNic,

Yep, I had e-mailed them some pics of Jessica, they rang me the next day saying we just 'loved' Jessica & want to see her further because she will be a great asset in our agency, blah blah blah. I hadn't told anybody what I had done, so I kept it quiet, then the day before the interview, I was just busting with pride, so I rang & told my sis. Now my sis is a very straight up person & she said that 3 of her daughters friends from school had just been 'accepted' into Bettina as well & they paid for the portfolio & never heard from them again.

So, I thought about it all overnight & decided not to show up to the interview. Thinking that if Jessica was going to be this massive 'asset' to the company, they would be calling saying 'what happened, we need to see her, we're super excited to see her' but they didn't. So I festered over it for a week or so & then also realised that had they have said to me 'look, we are so confident in Jessica that we will fund her portfolio price & that can be deducted from her earnings' I would have signed in a heartbeat. But they didn't & I have never heard from them again. Also, the woman who would have rung you to arrange the interview, their call centre isn't even based in Perth, so that was another thing that I didn't like. The people who were looking at her pics, weren't even the people who would be interviewing us in Perth.

Now, I'm not saying you shouldn't go for the interview, I reckon it'd be fantastic, but the portfolio is around $395 & you are NOT guaranteed any work & I have been told that the photo's weren't even brilliant photo's for the price. It's completely up to you, I do however feel as though they are putting as many kids on their books as possible and with a price of $395 PLUS an annual fee each year there after they are making a fortune. Also, have a big think about just how many catalogues, adverts, billboards, commercials, etc... are actually Perth generated, you'll find that most of them are done over East.

Now, I have just re-read this & I am sounding really negative & I'm sorry, I don't mean to be, but I was that over-excited-can't-believe-my-daughter-is-going-to-be-a-star mummy a few months ago & I didn't even hear back from them!

If you're really interested in it, go for it, maybe even just go to the interview & see what they say!

Let me know what they do say though, I'm really interested to hear what happens!

HTH!

Jayne