In a blink and you might miss it kind of way, our lovely
Evie Rose teepee will make its TV debut on Tuesday 19th April at 8pm
during the Channel Four documentary “The Tiny Tots Talent Agency”
Our teepees were spotted by one of their researchers, who
thought the teepees would be perfect for a new series they were about to shoot
following Bizzikidz modelling agency in London.
Generally we don’t hire models, our models are our children
and other family members who we just plonk into our tents and tell to smile! However, I thought this would be a really
good opportunity for us as a company to book a child with special needs,
something that is very close to my heart and an area that I feel is often
underrepresented in advertising.
Unbeknown to me, they were already following a little girl
Mia, who has Down syndrome. So when it
was suggested to me that Mia might join our shoot, we were all delighted.
Mia came along on the
day with another lovely girl from bizzikidz called Millie and they joined my
daughter and my neice on set. They were
both so fun and as a mother to a special needs child myself, Mia made me so
proud showing that her extra chromosome does not mean she cannot strike a pose
and be a great model too.
Mia was great fun in
the test shots and put all the girls at ease!
We got some fantastic shots which we have been able to use
across our website and promotional material and I am delighted how even as a
small company we are pushing the boundaries regarding models with special needs
and let’s hope the bigger companies all follow soon. Being unique is so beautiful and should be
celebrated and shown where possible.
Unfortunately when the footage went to edit, the direction
of the series changed and our feature was not shown apart from some lovely shots
at the end of the girls having a Myweeteepee tea party. Considering they shot over 700 hours of
footage, we are pretty impressed we made it that far!
It was such a great day though and we had so much fun with
the crew from two four and our fantastic models and their families. It was great to work with Bizzikidz agency
too, they are super-efficient and professional and I think this will definitely
come across during the programme. The
fact they had many modelling cards of children with additional needs for us to
consider really showed how as a booking agency they are really supportive of
our very special children getting work in the industry too.
Here are a few snap shots from the day with the crew.
This is our local high street in Wincanton where before we
moved to our new bigger premises, I used to have my cute little teepee
shop. Here is Fay and Demi from two four
trying to shield the sun from their eyes whilst filming the outside of the
shop.
We are so lucky that we have such a fantastic studio for our
photoshoots. It is a light airy studio
in rural Dorset and the sunlight just streams in creating a great light for our
images. The children usually run around
burning off steam and then happily pose in the teepees when we call them on
set.
We also did a Christmas shoot which felt very strange on a
sunny September day, but the children really enjoyed dressing up in their
Christmas jumpers and ripping all the paper off the empty shoe boxes that I had
painstakingly wrapped for the shoot! Mia
was not impressed with the empty shoe box that was for sure!
All
in all it was a great day and a great shoot which showed how children who had
never met each other before instinctively played and became friends over a
teepee. It would have been lovely if this
had been featured in more depth but overall it was a fantastic experience, we
made some lovely friends and got some amazing photos in the teepees.
I
personally am delighted just to be able to see Mia flying the flag for all
those amazing children out there proving that their ability is often far bigger
than their disability.
