Joe McKay from NEXT has a son who needs our help...

Here in L.A., NEXT Model Management was going to throw an Art Show on it's own. Then one of their great Models on their Men's board, Joe McKay and his wife Holly brought a new baby boy, Maceo McKay, into the world. Maceo has had many complications and has undergone all kinds of treatments and surgeries in his short time on Earth. Alexis Borges and the rest of NEXT made it a priority to turn the Art Show into a silent auction and fundraiser for Maceo's very expensive treatments. Here is the release from NEXT Model's Alexis Borges...

"Due to a lack of oxygen for an unknown period of time before or during birth, 

Maceo McKay suffered from a brain injury and some daunting physical 

disabilities. 

Holly and Joe spent Maceo’s  first two months of life in the Neonatal Intensive 

Care Unit at Cedars-Sinai and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, helping Maceo 

fight off pneumonia, undergoing surgery to have a feeding tube placed in his 

stomach along with other procedures and tests. 

Today, Maceo, now 14 months old is undergoing ongoing treatment. 

Maceo sees a number or doctors and specialists both Eastern and Western medicine: 

A regular pediatrician 

Pulmonologist 

Neurologist 

Cranial Osteopath 

Chiropractor 

Physical Therapist 

Occupational Therapist 

Early Intervention Specialist 

A Vision teacher 

Two Dieticians 

A Doctor of Integrative Medicine 

Holly and Joe are researching G-Therapy which is administered by specialists only in Europe (FDA has not given the ok for it in the US).  The therapy consists of adding herbs and salts to the diet showing great improvements in kids with similar diagnosis. 

Maceo is doing a reading program at home also. 

Next is hosting an art show benefiting Maceo McKay.  

Next had donated space and time to bring together numerous artists to raise 

money for Maceo.  There will be a silent auction with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Maceo.  Various pieces of art will be shown throughout the penthouse and will be available for purchase as well.  20% of these sales will also be directed to benefit Maceo. 

Our target this year is to raise $30,000 to help offset the costs of these treatments 

and to help the family through these first few years of Maceo’s life.  The most 

crucial time in repairing brain injuries is when the child is young.  

If you would like, donate through PayPal and enter maceomcay@me.com.  

To learn more about Maceo, view pictures and read a bit more about Holly and Joe’s experiences with Maceo, please check out MaceoMcKay.com 

(SOMW found out on the THANK YOU page of the link above you can Donate Direct without PayPal) 

We are working on tax-exempt status but not have achieved this yet.  This 

donation may or may not be tax deductible. 

ANY CONTRIBUTION, EVEN $5.00, WOULD HELP AND BE GREATLY APPRECIATED. 

On behalf of Holly and Joe, thank you so much for considering this. 

Love, 

Alexis Borges"

We at SOMW ask to please help however you can. Instead of going out to Sushi tonight, make that salad at home and send the $20 to Maceo. Go check out the cute website in the link above and help however you can. Our thoughts and prayers are with Maceo.

LESLIE FANG illuminates photos, runways, and sidewalks!

From a distance, on that cool day on Melrose, came a vision, strutting her stuff on the sidewalk, with her tall frame, blunt bangs, adorable face (even behind the chunky sunglasses), holding a NEXT book. Our amazing investigative skills hypothesized that the Leslie Fang, the woman we were about to randomly meet, was a model. Duh. We stopped her after one of her castings and so glad that we did. Leslie answered a few questions for us including some about her blog where you can peek into her modeling life and her self inspired fashion trends. 

I remember from being a little girl in Taiwan, I was always fascinated by fashion and beauty. Having been approached at a early age of 13 by scouts but also coming from a traditional asian family. Education was above all else and I was required to finish my college degree than pursue my own area of interest. With that mindset, during the end of college, I got scouted again and that's how it all started. 

I distinctly remember my first shoot, I thought to myself this is surreal and I am finally doing it. It felt like second nature and surprisingly very comfortable being on set and in front of the camera. Given the fact I've learned a lot of tips and tricks along the way. Like the saying, being pretty is one thing, but camera presence is another. As a child, I loved making my mom and my sister victims of my makeup and hair experiments. It was nice to finally have makeup and hair done on me. 

I love fashion and modeling made me fall in love with fashion more. You should wear the clothes and not let the label wear you. I base my styling on my mood which varies from day to day. One day I can be wearing gothic chic and the next I am sporting the Lolita attire. I like making the unworkable work and create individualism. Of course, I do make sure the color match, pattern, or material will match in an off beat way. 

Leslie has worked a few things including Paul Mitchell, Microsoft, Teen Vogue, and walked for the Art of Elysium charity. 


NEXT Models

Leslie's Blog: museelle.blogspot.com

JODIE SMITH with NEXT finally listened to her calling.

If this doesn't inspire you to listen to that voice deep down telling you what you really want to do with your life, than we don't know what will. Even when we meet the graceful Jodie Smith passing one of SOMW's interviews on Melrose, could have seemed totally random... or was it Jodi on her right path. 

At the age of 9 Jodie was walking down the hallway in her mother's heels. She, like many girls, wanted to model, but as Jodi grew she decided to pursue a career in finance since numbers came easy for her. (I credit the UK school system for that where Jodie's sexy accent is from.) But it sent her down a path in which she was constantly not being true to herself and was a product of her environment.

Jodie and her mother had moved to Maryland and Jodie went to college in Pittsburgh, graduated, and went to work in Finance despite years of people reminding her she should Model. During her breaks she would always be reading fashion magazines and still dressed killer but the other ladies were trying to hold her back and make her dress more conservative aka frumpy. Finally she said screw it and decided to act out and live her life a little closer to that 9 year old girl with a dream. 

That's when she went to an N.E.R.D. concert with a friend and knowing the sound guys, where backstage hanging out. That's when lead singer, Pharrell, asked her why she isn't modeling and made her call famed director Hype Williams right there on her Blackberry. Sounds crazy right? They talked about meeting up when she went to visit L.A. 

She did go to L.A. and Hype told her to call him when she arrived. She did and they took her straight to set, threw her in an outfit, and said she was the first girl up. She was in a whirlwind of her stars aligning and she almost couldn't keep up. She got off the plane and moments later was dancing with Kanye West in a Video Directed by Hype Williams!

Now this sounds like 1 in a million chances and it very well may be. But she would never have seen that 1 chance if she decided to not be...Jodie Smith...Model. 

The rest is history and Jodi has since done a Levi's Campaign and shot several shoots and walked in a show in San Francisco and is with NEXT Models in L.A.

WALKING ON THE MOON directed by Hype Williams

You can also find her new blog here:

http://www.girlyousowellspoken.com/

Josue Peña. - L.A. Photographer

If you are a new model needing shots to submit for agencies or developing at the agencies, do not pass up your chance to shoot with Josue Peña in his downtown LA studio. We stumbled across Josue's website a few years back and always admired his ability to photograph women looking their very best. He just finished doing a big shoot for an installation in a museum in San Francisco, but his work mostly consists of shooting test shoots for developing models at agencies like FORD, NEXT, L.A. MODELS, VISION, COPELAND TALENT and PINKERTON. He's also a stylist so his creativity is an endless well of different looks. Right now he loves shooting models Emily O Rata, Olivia Sylvan, and Emma Dumont from FORD and Erica Fletcher from NEXT. He says with a good model he's usually done getting the shot of one particular look between 10-20 exposures! We'll be back to check in on Josue and his fantastic work.