Kemp beats odds to enjoy shot at modeling career

     Amber Kemp has a message for all of those former classmates at Green Valley High School who spent their school days being mean and nasty to her.
      Nyaah!
      That's because Amber has earned a revenge better than any of those cliquish, snobby, know-it-all, self-centered classmates could have imagined: She's a fashion model who, not yet one year into her career, already has done runway shows in London and Milan, Italy, and shot layouts for magazines ranging from Cosmopolitan to Harper's Bazaar to Germany's Stern.
      Consider it karma gone right and an uncharacteristic bit of gloating from the polite, articulate 17-year-old who blushes, averts her eyes shyly and answers "Oh, right, famous" when asked what it feels like to be, yes, a famous international model.
      Last week, Amber returned to her family's Green Valley home for a few weeks of rest after eight weeks of doing editorial shoots and spring fashion shows in Europe.
      Ask her why she came home and the answer reveals the normal suburban kid beneath the slick, polished woman who can be seen in the current issue of Cosmopolitan.
      "I got homesick," she explains.
      After shows in London and Milan, "I was going to go straight to Paris and then New York," she says. "But, since I'm only 17, I got really homesick. I wanted to see my mom, and my brothers and my sisters, and my dog."
      Amber didn't have to come home to see her father, because Guy Kemp has spent much of the past year accompanying Amber as she learns the ropes of a business she finds fun and exciting, but physically and emotionally tougher than she had imagined.
      Actually, Amber had not planned on pursuing a career in modeling; acting was her interest. From sixth grade through high school last year, she acted in school plays whenever she could. She planned to go to college to study drama with an eye toward teaching it and maybe even acting herself.
      But, last spring, a strange thing happened: People from local modeling agencies began to approach Amber in malls to give her their card and tell her she should be a model.
      Guy Kemp didn't want his daughter to be an actress, much less a model. He has spent his living acting, doing television work and, for the past 15 years, hosting radio shows -- music shows, talk shows, whatever -- all over the country.
      Kemp knew acting and modeling would be tough careers for his daughter to pursue. Faced with her determination to see if she had what it takes, Kemp offered Amber a compromise.
      According to Kemp, "I said, `You want to do this, you're not going to go to open castings. We're going to go to Los Angeles, to all the (top) agencies, unannounced, and if you can get past the receptionist, then we'll say "Maybe." ' "
      Amber not only made it past the receptionists, but "all these places offered contracts," Kemp says. A few signatures on a few dotted lines later, and, he says, "ever since, I've been eating crow."
      Last June, on the first day of her summer vacation, Amber -- accompanied by her father, whose own career is temporarily on hold -- went to New York City and began her lessons in Modeling 101.
      "I was a kid. I was an excited teen-ager. I thought, `Oh, gosh, I'm going to New York, I'm going to be a supermodel' " Amber says. "But then I went on calls and found out how the business ran, and I realized it'd take some time."
      But things did move quickly. Within a week, Amber did her first editorial shoot, for photos that appeared a few months later in Harper's Bazaar.
      "It's the front of the book and the pictures are this big," Amber says, holding her fingers just more than an inch apart. "But it was my first job, and I was just so excited to be in a magazine."
      Last fall, on the advice of her agent, Amber -- again accompanied by her father -- took her first business trip to Europe. A run of magazine layouts -- including one by David Lachapelle, named photographer of the year in this year's VH-1 Fashion Awards -- and runway work at fall fashion shows followed, as did more runway and editorial work at the recently concluded slate of spring shows.
      The spring and fall shows are where most models earn the bulk of their income. "Someone starting out, like me, (earns) $2,500 to about $8,000 or $10,000" per show, Amber says, adding that she did, at most, three shows a day in Europe.
      In contrast, Amber says she earned only $100 for her several-page photo layout in the current Cosmopolitan, and that even appearing on the magazine's cover would earn her -- as it would even somebody as famous as Cindy Crawford -- about $300.
      Although it's relatively low-paying, print work offers a model exposure that can lead to more runway work and even -- at the top of the modeling food chain -- work in advertising campaigns that can make a model another Cindy, Tyra, Claudia or Niki.
      In some of her fashion layouts, Amber looks just like a 17-year-old who's spent some serious time in a makeup chair. But, in others, she looks years older and exudes a smoky, sultry image that's hard to reconcile with the kid in jeans and sandals sitting by the family pool.
      What does she see when she looks at her photos?
      "I think it looks like me," she answers. "My grandma and mom and dad, hopefully, think it looks like me, but a lot of people don't know. A lot of my friends are, like, `Wow, you look a lot different.' "
      Amber has learned over the past year about the pressures and temptations of modeling, and of what can happen to young girls who aren't emotionally prepared to face them.
      "A lot of these (models) my age -- 17, 18, 19, 20 -- have boyfriends who are, like 36 and 41, which I find absolutely revolting. I can't imagine myself ever being like that," she says.
      Eating disorders and drug use aren't uncommon even among young models, Amber says. "These girls are 15, and they're smoking and drinking, and it disgusts me.
      "I'm, like, coming home because I'm getting homesick, because my parents raised me right and raised me that family is all-important. But a lot of girls are just happy they're in a business that lets them smoke and drink at 15."
      Modeling also isn't a great career choice for somebody who isn't equipped with a healthy dose of self-esteem.
      "Some (designers) think your arms are too long for their clothes, and some think your legs are too long, or you're either too small or not small enough," Amber says. "And, you get treated like dirt by some designers and some of these people."
      Designers and photographers sometimes "don't really care what you have inside your head, they just care what you look like," she continues. "They don't care if they hurt your feelings, and there are some designers and people out there who can be so obnoxious. But I've learned it's just part of the business and I'm just going to let it roll off my shoulders."
      Amber also is starkly realistic about the longevity of a modeling career.
      "Modeling, of course, isn't going to last forever, because they only like you when you're young and fresh," she says. "So, I'm going to try and give it my all, and I can't ever say I've failed as long as I've tried. Whatever happens happens, and I'm still going to college and I'm still going to try and do acting and become a teacher like I want to be.
      "I'm just trying this for now because it only comes once, you know? You only live once, and I really do like it a lot."
      Best of all, Amber's burgeoning modeling career has helped her to put all those high school threats and taunts from other girls into perspective. Amber, who is finishing up her high school education with a private tutor and via correspondence work, says "modeling showed me there is another world out there" and that "there is life after high school."
      Now, those girls will just have to keep an eye on the magazine rack to see what Amber's up to.