This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
If you're expecting to see the next supermodel plucked from the masses by Tyra Banks on a national TV show, think again.
The next Gisele might be your next-door neighbor.
"We find [models] at The Gateway or in Tooele or at a monster-truck show or between the cucumbers at a grocery store," says Stacey Eastman, president of Oregon-based Pulse Model Management. In Utah, "they're everywhere - everywhere. You've just got to know what it is you are looking for."
Eastman is partnering with Elite Model Management - the world-renowned agency with which Tyra's winners of "America's Next Top Model" land a contract - to open its first scouting-only office in, yes, the Beehive State.
Next month, South Salt Lake will join the exclusive list of much-more-chic cities where Elite North America has locations: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Toronto and Atlanta.
Why?
Utah, Eastman says, has produced more fashion "superstars" than Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Colorado, Arizona and California combined.
"Even more than California - that's how bizarre Utah is."
Stiletto-studded stars: High fashion's runway stars, walking catwalks from New York to Paris, include East High junior Ali Stephens, Salt Lake City native Heidi Mount and former University of Utah student Hye Park - a Korean transplant who spent her teen years in Utah and now is one of the few top Asian models in the world. And Hannah Holman, a farm girl from Leamington (near Delta), recently wrapped a photo shoot in Hawaii for American Eagle Outfitters.
Stephens was spotted last year by one of Eastman's scouts while she was shopping at The Gateway in Salt Lake City with her family.
"He said, 'This is for real,' and I was like, 'Yeah right,' " recalls Stephens' father, Marc.
Ali Stephens signed a contract with Elite in September and, within a few months, catapulted into the top 5 percent of models worldwide, Eastman says.
Emily Seegmiller, a ninth-grader in Cedar Hills, is hoping to follow in Stephens' stiletto-studded tracks. Barely 15 years old, she's already 5-foot-11. Modeling scouts have been approaching her parents since she was 10.
"We always threw the [business] cards away and said 'no,' " says Lacy Seegmiller, Emily's mom.
But Michael Crouch, Pulse's talent director, was much more persistent - and credible, she says. He saw Emily when she tried out in January for the MTV movie "American Mall." (Emily landed a spot as a dancer and a small acting role as a model. The film premieres this summer.)
He then followed the Seegmillers around for two weeks, shooting photos of Emily at dance rehearsals, until her parents caved.
"It's always something I wanted to do, but I never thought they would let me do it," says Emily, who is still not allowed to have a cell phone. She is scheduled to do her first modeling gigs in New York next month.
"I never imagined that all of this could happen so quick and that I could be, you know, a big part of the world some day."
'Great gene pool': Neal Hamil, director of Elite North America, says Utah is a modeling "gold mine" that's "just beginning to be tapped."
When asked to explain the phenomenon, he points to a "great gene pool" that seems to spawn an abundance of "tall, lean, gorgeous girls with long legs and long arms and long necks" - not to mention "amazing personalities."
Lacy Seegmiller wonders if it could be chalked up to just "more kids" in Utah. After all, she has six of her own.
Eastman agrees.
"We love the predominant [LDS] faith," he says, "if for no other reason than we have 10 people to pick from within one house rather than two people . . . [as] in most parts of the country."
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Utah ranks No. 1 for percentage of households - 43 percent - that have at least one kid under age 18. And the median age here is 28, compared with 36 nationally.
Utah's entertainment headquarters: Girls who sign with Elite often earn $200 to $250 per hour, or daily fees of $5,000 to $30,000, Eastman says.
But the South Salt Lake office, under construction at 2150 S. Main St., won't represent just models. Eastman also works with action sports athletes, such as skateboarders and snowboarders.
And negotiations are under way, he notes, with a "very large motion-picture casting company" that would like to put an office alongside Elite's, which will anchor the planned Market Station housing and office development.
His plans get bigger.
Eastman and the South Salt Lake office will be featured in a documentary-style NBC pilot, dubbed "Smashing Beauty," that is set to begin filming in June. The show will pit Eastman against other scouts in a competition to find and groom a top model.
And, starting in 2009, he plans to bring the Beehive State its very own "fashion week" - albeit on a much smaller scale than, say, New York's or L.A.'s. The event would feature Utah designers (yes, there are a few) and models.
"We're in the process of rallying the best people in their respective fields of sports, film, fashion - the entire entertainment industry," Eastman says. "What we're trying to create here is nothing different than what Miami did 15 or 20 years ago" to become one of the biggest spots in the world for catalog photo shoots.
In the near future, Eastman and Elite executives are busy plotting a grand-opening party for the South Salt Lake office. So far, plans for the May 31 event call for skateboarders scraping through a half-pipe, a runway demonstration with area models - and a major model search.
So maybe Utah's next rising star to traipse down a catwalk in Europe could be you.