Danita Summers began modeling during high school. She and her girlfriend visited an agency in San Francisco, and she signed up for her first job over the summer. One of the first things she did was a department store advertisement for "Back to School." During college, she modeled part-time to put herself through school. Danita did a lot of catalogs, print ads and even a few commercials for companies like Espirit, Sears, Robinson's May, and J.C. Penney's. Most pictures she did fell into the juniors or bridal category.

National catalogs such as J.C. Penney's paid the most -- due to its national circulation and year long publication. In addition, fewer models were used than in a regular shoot, so the selected models got paid more. Print ads, the weekly inserts in the newspaper from department stores, were more work because a whole season of ads would be shot in two months or less. The potential for good pay was there but you had to work continuously. For example, says Danita, "You would start shooting in September to work on Christmas and after-Christmas advertisements. When that project ended in November, you would start shooting Spring. You have to do each rotation to continue the salary. Your agent will negotiate the price based on frequency of printing and number of copies each time. For commercials, the pay was based on national versus local reach. If the commercial was rerun years later, the company would pay you again for its use."

In college, Danita lived in St. Louis, Missouri so the work was a little different than San Francisco. Her jobs would take her to Chicago, Texas and parts of the Midwest. She was also naturally thin, which was fine for San Francisco but put her at a distinct disadvantage in the Midwest. She ended up modeling for a lot of junior clothing and Bridal catalogs and accessories. In bridal, most companies hire one model that does everything for them for a whole season. Danita explains, "You end up traveling a lot to many bridal conventions. You do find new friends when you travel, but it can get extremely tiring." She continues: "The best perk in modeling is definitely the clothes. If they alter clothes, they will give you the clothing or shoes. Typically, buyers and advertisers are really good about giving you free merchandise." The worst part of the job, she says, is "all the waiting. There are a lot of times you sit there and do nothing. Once your hair and makeup is ready, you wait for the photographer, set or whatever."

She continues, "You might try to study to pass the time, but you can't concentrate easily in a wedding dress and veil. Also, no one in modeling is that nice. After I passed the 22-year-old mark, the other models I met were only getting younger. It wasn't as fun then because most people I met were 15 to 18 years old, and it was more difficult to relate to them. There is not as much room for you to grow as other careers." Danita never pursued modeling as a career full-time, but her friends that actively pursued it did well. She estimates that if she had done a job every month, her earnings would have been $150,000 to $200,000 a year. If she had worked all the time, Danita's earnings would have topped $250,000.