Is Your Child Right for Showbiz?

It is important to take a close look at your child before you decide to pursue an acting or modeling career.  What sort of child is right for showbiz? What characteristics are likely to indicate that your child is right for an acting or modeling career?

While nothing can guarantee your child’s success in show business, it may help if your child:

1. Has a friendly, outgoing, and fun personality.
2. Is comfortable around other children and adults when first meeting them, and is not afraid to leave your side.
3. Is very confident.
4. Has a “good look.” A good look can be beauty, or it can include features such as big eyes, freckles, great hair, curly hair, red hair, dimples, a great smile, or full lips. Or it can be an unusual or exotic look, mixed ethnicity, or ambiguous ethnicity. It may include classic looks such as the Kid-Next-Door or the All-American-Kid look.
5. Has charisma. This means that people tend to be attracted to your child for any one of a variety of possibly unidentifiable reasons. This is sometimes also called the “it factor.”
6. Loves the spotlight.
7. Is patient.
8. Is or can be well-behaved.
9. Is very focused.
10. Is expressive.
11. Is photogenic or looks good on film.

Some other positive factors are talent in music, dance, or sports, good communication skills, good memorization skills, good reading ability, ability to speak naturally, comedic ability, looking younger than actual age, and ability to follow directions well. This list could go on and on.

Most children won’t have all these things, but if your child possesses many of them, that is a good indication. If your child does not possess most of these, it doesn’t mean your child can’t become a model or actor, but it does mean you need to think a little more about whether this is the right choice to make.