2008 UPDATE: The 2008 Casting Call is now live.
The 2007 Kodak/Baby Gap Casting Call Contest finalists were announced today, so it’s finally time for the voting to begin and the rumour and speculation to come to an end! All interested parties can go vote for their favorite finalist at gap.com/castingcall. According to the official rules, you can vote once a day, every day, until December 15, 2007.
OK, now here’s my little PSA about this whole child modelling thing. If you are a finalist in this contest, mazel tov, you are extremely lucky. If your child was not lucky enough to be selected as a finalist, and you still really want your kid to be a Gap model, I’ll give you some tips on how to do it with much better odds. First, take a look at this article and this article about child modelling, then if you’re still interested in going ahead, the next thing to do is find your child an agent. I’ve listed the names and addresses of a few shops that I have read are legitimate agencies for child modelling below (however, other than Larkin Model Management, I have no firsthand experience with any of these places, so please do your own due diligence). On a side note, it certainly helps your chances of getting an agent if you are in New York or LA (or are willing to fly to either one at a moments notice).
Child Modelling Agencies in NY
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Ford Models 111 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10003 (212) 219-6500 |
Wilhelmina Kids 300 Park Ave. S New York, NY 10010 (212) 473-1253 |
Generation 20 West 20th St., #1008 New York, NY 10011 (212) 727-7219 |
Product 240 West 35th St, #1001 New York, NY 10011 (212) 563-6444 |
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CED Youth Division 257 Park Ave. S New York, NY (212) 477-6622 |
Abrams Artists Agency 275 7th Ave., 26th Fl New York, NY 10001 (646) 486-4600 |
Funnyface 381 Park Ave. S suite 821 New York, NY 10016 (212) 686-4343 |
Larkin Model Management PO Box 1292 Springfield, NJ 07081 Attn: Maureen Sinclair |
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To get an agent, you’ll need to submit one or two candid photos of your child to an agency via snail mail to with the following information on the back of the photo.
Child’s Name
Child’s DOB
Current Clothing Size
Child’s Height, Weight
Parent’s Name and Contact Information
Proper etiquette requires that you provide a self addressed stamped envelope (SASE) along with your submission, so the agency can send you back the photos of your child when if they decide not to sign you. A word of advice, no legitimate agency will charge to have your child considered as a potential client. If an agency tries to charge you upfront, I would stay away from them.
Once you’ve landed an agent, your child can join the ranks of many other Gap models-to-be and turn up for the annual Gap (maybe more than that, I’m not really sure) cattle casting calls they have in New York, LA and San Francisco. Sure, your kid’s chances are still pretty slim at the “live” Gap casting call, but trust me, they don’t get 800,000 kids to those things, not even 1% of that probably. Good Luck. Keep the comments coming!
A former child model after the jump.
Look for Santa Baby again this year at your favorite Barnes and Noble.
Here’s another good article about child modelling.
Sorry, but I found this discussion heading in an uncomfortable direction for me, so I have closed comments for this post.
I decided to reopen the comments on this thread. Please folks, let’s try and be civil here.
Thanks for reopening the thread. This seems to be the best website where parents can discuss the contest or get information about it. Good luck to all those other finalists.
Hello from Tennessee…We would love to ask for the support of all you mommies and daddies out there. Our little baby boy, Matthew, is a finalist in this contest. We really are so thankful for this fun experience and are, obviously, as surprised as anyone would be for being selected. Every child is perfectly beautiful to his/her parents, and ours is no less than a miracle to us. Matthew is the sweetest boy, waking up each day all smiles and ready for fun! Thanks for considering voting for him!! Best wishes to you all.
“Every good and perfect gift is from above.” -James 1:17
tnmom – It was great meeting you and Matthew in San Francisco. Our boys are in the same category of finalists (my little guy is Dylan). There sure are alot of cuties! I’m glad I don’t have to decide who wins! LOL. Good luck to Matthew and Dylan!
Good luck to you both tnmom and medgin. I’m sure your both voting everyday for them. I can imagine December 15th seems like a long time from now and then waiting even longer to find out the winners……
On another note, I believe Gap will be placing an ad for the finalist in their local news paper sometime this week. Are either of you advertising for votes in other places?
lkpshort – I’m not sure I understand what you mean about the ad that Gap is placing? Are they basically going to talk about the contest, encourage voting, and talk about the 20 finalists? You say it will be in a local newspaper…local to who? And, how do you know they will be doing this?
I know Gap did a huge PR campaign on 11/20 when the voting opened up. They did media outreach to media in the local markets of each finalist. I know that my area has picked up the story – 3 of our local papers have printed stories and the local news station just called to do an interview tomorrow. I’m not sure what other markets have picked up the story though.
Oh, and ya…Dec. 15th might as well be YEARS away! LOL – the suspense is killing me! But I have to admit that this whole thing has been a whirlwind and we’re still enjoying all the attention and fun it’s brought us! We’ll milk our 15 minutes of fame as long as we can. LOL
medgin, I meant to say the local news paper of your town/city.
You have great coverage if you have all three news papers print your son’s picture in the paper.
New York picked up the story in today paper for the two NY finalists and posted the pictures.
http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/2007/11/29/2007-11-29_cast_vote_for_these_new_york_cuties_city.html
Thanks for the link lkpshort! Cool story! It’s so fun to see all this neat coverage. I guess our area must really like ‘local’ stories. In addition to the three local papers picking it up, our local news station did a story with me and Dylan in it. That was fun, but very nerve wracking because they did a LIVE and taped interview. Guess we’ll milk the ‘fame’ as long as we can. LOL
I’ll keep an eye out for that ad.
Hey – not sure if anyone is still voting here. But the Gap posted some videos too. When you click on the child’s picture, you’ll see a little link. Fun!
medgin & tnomom – any word from the Gap? Good Luck to you both.
kateryan – we haven’t heard anything yet and the suspense is killing me. we were told all 20 families would hear (either way) this week. my presumption is that the winners would be notified first. seeing that it’s already thursday and we havne’t heard, i’m assuming we didn’t win. that’s ok though, now i just want it to be over so we can collect our prizes. lol
thanks for checking in
medgin – I’m Kyle’s mom (age 5-12, boys) I haven’t heard
anything yet either. I was also assuming winners are being notified first. The suspense is killing me also. Good
Luck!! I hope we hear soon.
Anything yet medgin/tnomomkateryan?
My son Sully is in the 5-12 boys category…we have not heard anything. We’re beginning to think they forgot about us! Has anyone else heard anything??
I heard the SD girl won can anyone verify
Hi, this is Desiree, Elijah’s mom and I haven’t heard anything yet. I was told that ePrize was going to reach out the week of 12/17 but no word and when i reached out via email I got a bunch of out of office replies. I feel as if they forgot us to. Hi to Sully and Lizzie since Elijah still speaks of you both all the time! I am glad I am not the only one waiting and in the dark.
On January 3rd, the Insider, Channel 2, at 7 pm EST had a
clip on the GAP casting call. It was only a few minutes but alot of the kids were on it. My friend just happened to see it & called me. If anyone on the west coast is reading this, maybe you can catch it.
Hey- it’s Lizzie’s mom. I hope everyone has been notified by now. I was on 12/20 via email and then heard nothing of confirmation for 2 weeks. I guess holidays- whatever. I asked when we recieve our prize packs- 8-10 weeks after contest completion (1/28), so I wouldn’t be checking your mailboxes yet 🙂 Lizzie says hello to EJ and Kyle, and Sally, but i think she meant Sully.
Hi Everyone (it’s Nicole, Mom to Dylan (baby boy)…so nice to see so many familiar faces! I finally reached out to ePrize and got a notification back via email. I think it’s odd that they didn’t contact all of us as promised, but hopefully you’ve all heard by now. I’m so bummed we have to wait 8-10 weeks AFTER 1/28 to get the prizes. Sheesh! They sure have dragged this thing out! But what fun it’s been, huh?
I caught The Insider clip. It was cute. I’m curious where they got all the b-roll of the photo shoot. I wonder if Gap is still doing media outreach? I thought it was kind of weird they wouldn’t run a national clip like during the voting period.
Hi Everyone,
Kyle says Hi to Lizzie. Nicole, I caught The Insider but
missed Entertainmnet Tonight. Did it have the same kind of
clip? The Insider had the babies & the older boys. Only
Lizzie & Aubrey were on. I’m wondering if ET did more of the older girls. Anyway, it was fun to watch. I hope they
contact us if there will be more coverage.
Hi everyone.. Elijah’s mom.. Rachel, did you receive my email to you of the pics of EJ and Lizzie? Jen, I also emailed you yesterday pics of EJ and Sully from the trip from San Fran. I missed the clip but I heard it was great. I reached to a contact since I use to work in PR to see if he can retrieve and get it for me on DVD, if so, I will be more than happy to burn and send out to all of you!.. I will keep everyone posted and thank you to everyone who helped me out in the past few days..;-)
Hi to Kyle and his mom by the way, it was great meeting you guys from Elijah!..;-)
Kyle says Hi to Elijah also! I tivo’d The Insider but if you get anything from ET, I would love a copy. Thanks!
Guys – The Entertainment tonight didn’t really have a ‘clip’ – it was really just an ad for the clip on The Insider, hope that makes sense. The footage was a little different, but super quick.
Elijah’s mom, I would LOVE a copy if you can get one. Let me know if you get it and I will get you my email.
james…where or how did you ‘hear’ that the girl from SD won? and why only that child? there are 4 winners.
thanks medgin for clearing it up. On the East Coast,
the Insider was on at 7 pm, following ET on 7:30 pm. I
called my sister in San Diego to watch it & she said
Inside Edition was on, and not The Insider, so she didn’t
see anything. Wierd, I thought all the shows were on
at the same time nationwide.
I recently updated the contact information for all the child modeling agencies, everything should be correct now.