Erda teen splits time between modeling and a regular life

Two years ago, a 12-year-old girl won tickets to a Tim McGraw and Faith Hill concert at the EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City. Delighted, she coaxed her father into taking her to the concert. As they stood in line talking, a lady walked up to her and asked if she could talk to her “date” — meaning her dad — and asked if she had ever done any modeling. As a scout for a modeling agency, she promised to help the young girl enter the world of professional modeling.

This is the stuff that fiction, or maybe a fairy tale, is made of. But the story is neither fiction nor fairy tale. It is how Brenna DeYoung, daughter of Lyndon and Jaelene DeYoung of Erda, got started in a modeling career.

From the night of the concert the story has become more exciting. During the past year, Brenna has had opportunities to do photo shoots in New York City, a runway show as a lead-in for a rock concert in Salt Lake, a brief spot in a popular movie, and won a model competition. Other modeling opportunities came and more await — possibly in Europe — as she approaches her 15th birthday.

When the modeling scout first asked if she had ever done any modeling two years ago, Brenna had to admit that people before had asked if she would model and she hadn’t wanted to do it.

At 5 feet 11 inches, she was self conscious because she towered nearly a foot taller than most of the other kids at Tooele Junior High.

“Her dad and I always told her she was beautiful, but she didn’t believe us because we were her parents,” Jaelene said.

After the initial meeting in January 2007, the scout determined Brenna was too young to model but promised she would get in touch with her later that year.

“[The agency] said they would call me in October and they didn’t call until December. I had pretty much given up by then but they called. They said they wanted to meet me and I went and saw them. They said I was too young and that I needed to ‘incubate’ for a year,” Brenna said.

The year passed and then the excitement began. Brenna was linked up with her local agent, Stacey Eastman, president of Pulse Management/Elite Model Management. Eastman is the exclusive representative for Elite North America. Eastman finds Brenna modeling career opportunities and connects her with other modeling agencies.

“I did portfolio pictures in March 2008 and in May I went to ‘Utah’s Next Top Model’ competition and ended up winning. I won a contract with [modeling agency] Elite New York and got [an all expense paid] trip to New York.”

Meanwhile, she modeled Nappy jeans as an opening to a Three 6 Mafia concert in Salt Lake.

“It was a runway fashion show. They had a runway out from the stage with megatrons flashing all around it. It was exciting. [The models] had a backstage changing room that was like a storage room — there was nowhere else for us to go. It was hectic but it was pretty fun,” Brenna relates. Each model did one outfit as the lead-in for the concert.

Last July, Jaelene, Lyndon and Brenna’s brother, Taylor, decided to make the trip to New York a family affair and all went together. While there, Brenna had three test shoots over a six-day period to get pictures to add to her portfolio.

“The first was with a guy named Monty. It was an editorial shoot. I had a blast with him. He was so much fun. We were joking around the entire time. The makeup artist was a blast, too.

“The next shoot was high fashion. I got to wear big huge fun dresses, big hair and a lot of makeup. The room was full of people laughing, having fun and taking a lot of pictures,” Brenna said.

“In the high fashion photo shoot I got to wear a big expensive Chanel dress. It was cream colored and had gray swirls all over it — like a ball gown and I just absolutely love that. No one had even worn it yet.”

The third segment was a “natural beauty” segment featuring photographs without makeup or hairdos. These photos show the model’s fundamental look and serve such businesses as cosmetic companies.

“That shoot was kind of frustrating. It was a Sunday morning. The [photographer] said he never gets up that early on Sunday and he had just flown in from Paris. He was in a bad mood. He kept yelling at me and telling me things to do. On the other shoots we moved around a lot and they shot a lot of pictures and we laughed and had a blast. He had me sit still and just change expressions. It was really hot and I wore a black knit dress so it was very hot.

“It was too bad, because it was really awful for my last shoot,” she said.

Brenna also met with scouts from Paris and chatted with them. She is still too young to work overseas until she is at least 15. However, she turns 15 in April and the agency plans to send her to London and Paris sometime next summer.

She has had two casting calls — one with an agent from Italy and one with an agent from Paris — both of which her mother says they don’t know anything about yet, but can’t do Europe until she is older due to child labor laws.

Meanwhile, the DeYoungs are exploring their options.

Next week Lyndon has a business trip to London. The DeYoungs will go along to do some “go-sees.” Brenna’s manager will call ahead to let various groups know that she is coming. Brenna will show them her portfolio, talk to them and let them get to know her.

“They want to see me in person and want to see what my personality is like,” she explained.

Brenna’s agency had planned for her to take part of ABC’s Good Morning America following the everyday life of a model in fashion week, but her New York agent was severely injured and unable to make the arrangements.

As a model, she has also had opportunities to take part in movies. Brenna was in a scene of “High School Musical 3” as a background for a basketball game.

All of this takes a good deal of time and effort, particularly with the added time for costume fitting and makeup. Brenna meets with a makeup artist a couple of days before shows to decide her color tones and how to do her hair and face. She must be at shows a couple of hours ahead of time for full makeup and hair, Jaelene reports. Then there are the trips back and forth to meet with Brenna’s agent and to go to practices where she learns to model better and walk properly for runway shows.

Nevertheless, at age 14, school is still a very important part of Brenna’s life.

“I just go to school until they call me and tell me I get to go somewhere,” Brenna says. “Sometimes they don’t give us a whole lot of notice and I have to drop everything to do it.

“[The agency] has been really good at working around my schedule because they want me to stay in high school. I mostly do weekends, school breaks and summer. When I turn 15, there is a possibility that I might need to start missing some school,” she said. “The school counselor and school have been really good. I told them what I am doing and they try to work with me.”

Life at school for Brenna is very busy as well. She belongs to the Tooele High School band playing bass clarinet. She participates in marching band, pep band, and concert band.

She is also currently in the Tooele High School play, “Beauty and the Beast,” as one of Gaston’s silly girls.

Additionally, she plays high school volleyball and runs track in the spring. She always played soccer before, but decided volleyball is a better choice for now.

Outside of school she is highly involved with horses. She shows two of them on paid circuit in English and Western and also does 4-H horse shows, both English and Western. She shows paint horses as a member of the Utah Paint Horse Association. The family is very much involved in horses and they own 10 all together.

Brenna has a horse of her own, Britches, at home and a four-year-old horse named Pickles in training in Bountiful. She rides Britches after school and on weekends and tries to get to Bountiful to ride Pickles for two or three hours a couple of times a week. When she is busy, the trainer and assistants ride her every day.

Brenna’s goal is to take Pickles to the World Paint Horse Show in Texas next year. By then the horse should have reached a level of training to be a contender.

Brenna says it is kind of hard to pin down her favorite activity.

She said she likes band because all of her friends are in the band, and she has fun traveling for competitions in marching band.

But she said being in the THS play has also been fun because she has a lot of friends in it, too.

“We are hanging out 24/7 because of the practices,” she said. “It ends this Saturday, so it is all going to be over. It is going to be kind of sad.

“Modeling is fun to do now because I love to travel and see new places and the big fun outfits. It’s just a blast. I can do perfumes, jewelry and other things, but will do whatever comes along. Or movies.”

The modeling opportunities have not swayed her from her long-term goals, however.

“It is more of a ‘now’ thing because I want to be a child psychologist. Modeling can help me pay for college and stuff,” she added.

“I want to do what I am doing around here — horses now. I don’t want to live in New York. It is too big, and too many people and no mountains at all,” Brenna said. “They do have model apartments and I could stay there for a while, but I wouldn’t want to live there. I love my animals and don’t want to leave them. I just love the country smell.”

The country smell and laid-back living could well be a long-term part of Brenna’s life, but for now, she likes the rush and excitement that the fashion world is adding to her teenage years.