I just received a “new model” notification from OMP about a model who joined in my area.  Nice looking girl . . . but her claimed measurements were vastly wrong.  The bust measurement was probably right:  34B, she says.  But even though she is quite slim, her waist was stated to be 32”, and her hips 30” – given her height, weight, age and photos, the waist measurement was wrong by at least 7 inches and the hips by 4”.  Even if you don’t know how to measure, it’s hard to do it any reasonable way that is wrong and get to a 32” waist measurement when reality is closer to 25”.   Clearly she had not measured – and hadn’t even bothered to make a reasonable guess.

But that’s very common.  Women don’t know how to measure themselves, and don’t bother to do it anyway.  They just put down anything that pops into their heads. 

Let’s try to quantify the problem: I took a look at the most recent models to sign up here.  There were 8 new models of the 20 in the “newest members” section.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is that of those eight, four have listed stats that are clearly wrong and one likely is wrong; most of them don’t even give an appearance of trying.

What is a casting director, client or photographer to think when they see a model who lists her stats as 12-12-12?  Two of the most recent sign-ups claim that.  Or perhaps 34C-12-18, or 34A-28-12?  And yet those are really what is on the models’ profiles.  Another of the most recent lists 32B-25-33; she is 5’6” tall and 112 pounds, she says, so it’s just possible, but quite unlikely that her hips measurement is correct.  Most likely she tried and just didn’t know how to measure properly.

One of those new sign-ups above is beautiful, 5’9” tall, and seems from her stated weight and pictures to be fashion-model thin.  But using the “find” tool, inserting required stats of 5’9” or taller and a hips measurement from 32 to 35 inches – as a fashion client might - she does not show up in the search.  And that’s a shame, because she is costing herself potential jobs for which she seems to be very well qualified. 

People using model listing sites search often use measurements (“stats”), and if they are listed wrong, either the model won’t be found in the search, or will be disqualified once the truth is known.