Modelland was a Missed Opportunity

When Tyra Banks came out with a novel called Modelland it was made fun of and eventually went out of print for being such a chaotic novel that didn’t really catch on. I believe it was a missed opportunity for a good concept about a world where people were trying to become models, but as soon as they make it to model land, they realize it is not exactly what they wanted.

The novel starts with a main character named Tookie who wants to find a way to get into Modelland. It starts to talk about the magical powers that each model in the land possesses. They were named ridiculous names like excitabuy (excited to buy) that makes it where people want to buy what you are selling. These powers are mentioned at the start of the novel, but there is no return to them. It would have been great if it was shown how the models use the powers throughout their days, or how they actually start to become like a curse. There is one interesting power that makes it where you stay 17, so writing about not being able to grow up could be interesting to be added into the horror element.

What was great in the realm of horror ideas was an area in the book where the girls are dumped into their favorite food and are electrocuted if they try to eat it. There is also a section with a facial spa that makes you see past trauma from your life. It would have been nice to see the reason for that was because of wanting the models to be starving tortured artists.

This element reminded me of the movie Paradise Hills where there is a prison girls are staying in that is shown as a spa paradise, so it tricks you into thinking it is good when they actually come to find they want out. I see this element with Modelland when the girls are all trying to find something called a “smize” in order to make it there. This is almost like trying to capture a snitch in Harry Potter. The girls want to capture this and try to be accepted onto the land to be a model, but then come to wish they hadn’t.

A mix of Modelland and Paradise Hills would be nice for a fantasy book. Girls wanting to be something they are not because they feel “forgettable.” Girls trying to make a role for themselves at the top, but just end up being a clone of someone else like what happened in Paradise Hills when the girls that came in were redone to look like and copy the other girls. They then later had to be saved to go back to their regular lives they wanted back because of losing themselves. Not every girl can be just like the other, and there is consequences for reaching to fame. You may not be able to create or share exactly what you want to because of expectations from the outside.

Talking about mental health would have been another point, but it wasn’t taken seriously enough in the book with people calling hair having “multiple personalities” because of it setting different ways and becoming frizzy. I wish the book would have been a lead into how mental health isn’t taken seriously enough and compared to silly things like hair or seen as a necessity (like eating disorders). Modeling is more than just posing for pictures, it is keeping the scouts and fans happy with what you look like and how you market yourself.