The Milwaukee-related novels continue to flow from the major New York publishers and even if the latest, “Model Student,” isn’t set here, it’s nevertheless got a Brew City pedigree.
That’s because author Robin Hazelwood is a Milwaukee girl and, as she says, grew up, “drinking kegs of Miller and going to Summerfest.” The novel is loosely based on Hazelwood’s career as a fashion model and offers a fascinating glimpse into that world, via the protagonist, 17-year-old Emily, who struggles to keep up with her work as a Columbia University student and her job as an up and coming model.
Hazelwood -- who recently appeared in Milwaukee to promote the book and returns for another round of promo in October -- is now a full-time writer living in New York and working on the follow-up to “Model Student.” We recently asked her about her novel, the Milwaukee ties and more.
OMC: Let's start with the dreaded question asked of all novelists, how much of "Model Student" is based on your own life? Were your parents hippies and was the modeling life as dark and dangerously tempting (drugs, plastic surgery, eating disorders) as it seems?
RH: As fantastical as they might seem, all of the modeling scenes in “Model Student” were inspired by either my own experiences or by the experiences of models that I interviewed, so, yes -- shockingly -- the industry is just as dark and dangerously tempting as portrayed. Many of the university scenes in “Model Student” were also based on real-life situations -- though, thankfully, I did not flash my day-of-the-week panties to the entire freshman class! The area furthest from reality is Emily’s -- my protagonist’s -- personal life. Were my parents hippies? Well, my father is a retired corporate lawyer and I think that just about says it all.
OMC: Maybe you can tell us a bit about the genesis of the book. Did the idea for Model Student arise before the desire to write a novel or was it the reverse and modeling was a subject you knew well?
RH: I’ve always loved to write. I’d even go so far as to say I didn’t mind -- “loved” would be a stretch -- writing papers in college; it was one of my most consistently creative outlets. I know: get a life. That said, it’s a big leap to go from writing a paper to writing a book.
The genesis for “Model Student” occurred when I was modeling and would look at what was happening around me and think “someone has to write about this.” Years later, when I was feeling restless in my marketing job and searching something more fulfilling, I decided that someone was me. The fact that the subject I knew about happened to be a juicy one made taking that leap slightly less daunting.
OMC: Tell us about your exit from the modeling world. Was it abrupt; did you decide you'd had enough? Or was it more gradual?
RH: In real life, my career arc was not as steep as Emily’s. I wasn’t as gung ho on modeling when I began, which in turn meant I didn’t become as abruptly disillusioned with it. I modeled for 13 years. Looking back, I stayed in it too long. By the end, I really didn’t like it. But, it was my first job, it was what I knew, and I think first jobs, like first loves, can be hard to leave.
OMC: Luckily you had a Yale degree to fall back on -- or did that come later? What happens to the women whose modeling careers end and they've got nothing? Is it like that picture we have of the non-millionaire athlete who breaks his leg and is doomed to a life of penury?
RH: I went to college right off the bat. Like Emily, I got representation at a New York City modeling agency the same week I went trotting off to freshman orientation. My agents in New York put tremendous pressure on me to quit school; “postpone,” they’d whisper, usually in dulcet tones whilst rubbing my neck, “just for a year or two.”
I came pretty close -- I accelerated a semester in the middle of Yale, which meant that I took the summer off plus three additional months. But I went back (my agents wept). I’m so glad I did. All those models who postponed college “just for a year or two” ended up putting it off until they were older (night school: not the fun co-ed experience), or, more often, indefinitely.
Acting is still the top aspiration for most models. The ones that don’t make it often seem to go into sales -- (although) one could argue, that’s what they’ve been doing all along -- or, randomly, jewelry design. It seems like every time I open a magazine, another model has launched a jewelry line!
OMC: Are you ever asked to give advice to kids who want to become models? What do you tell them?
RH: I tell young women a few things. The first thing is to be frugal. There are a lot of places out there all too willing to tell you that you, yes, you have just what it takes to be a super model. Naturally, this praise is immediately followed by a plea to enroll in an expensive modeling course. You don’t learn how to model in a classroom. A legitimate agency that thinks you’re the real deal is willing to invest in you as much as you are in them.
My other main piece of advice is to stay in school. Modeling is like professional sports: you don’t have many years in the game. For every model that becomes the catwalk equivalent of Brett Favre (now that’s a lovely image, isn’t it?), there are thousands who have a good, steady careers but don’t bank enough to retire. Going to college is not only important developmentally, it also broadens your options for the next phase of your working career. And in the era where 40 is the new 30, you’re not really giving anything up.
Many of the models I worked with are still going. They might be modeling granny jeans, but they’re still going.
OMC: You're a Wisconsin girl, right? What's your background here?
RH: On Wisconsin! I was born in Milwaukee and raised in Cedarburg. My parents still live in the same farmhouse that I grew up in, along Cedar Creek, and my grandmother, aunts and uncles are in the area as well. I grew up drinking kegs of Miller and going to Summerfest. Whenever I come home, I love going for Serbian food at Three Brothers or to any number of Polish or German restaurants. Milwaukee does the best wurst.
OMC: Do you get back here often?
RH: Three to five times a year.
OMC: How has it changed since you lived here? Would you consider coming back to live here?
RH: One thing I’ve really noticed is the northern expansion. I went to University School, in River Hills. When I was little I got taunted for living in the sticks, the most frequent comments being, “It must be long distance to call your house,” and “What time did you get up to milk the cows?” My reply: “Actually, we have chickens, not cows,” did little to improve my rep.
Now most of those former classmates live in Mequon. Mequon is big time: a cinemaplex! A Starbucks! Fancy shoe stores! Frozen custard! (Okay, every place in Milwaukee has frozen custard, but still…)
OMC: Now that the book is done and you've done a book tour and the media blitz, what's next? Are you writing a sequel, something completely different, nothing at all?
RH: I am about 70 pages into my second novel. This book is quite different from “Model Student”. It follows four characters, two men, two women, over the course of a summer and is set in both New York City and in that ocean playground of the rich and famous: the Hamptons. Now, getting cheese curds into this book is going to be quite a challenge…
That’s because author Robin Hazelwood is a Milwaukee girl and, as she says, grew up, “drinking kegs of Miller and going to Summerfest.” The novel is loosely based on Hazelwood’s career as a fashion model and offers a fascinating glimpse into that world, via the protagonist, 17-year-old Emily, who struggles to keep up with her work as a Columbia University student and her job as an up and coming model.
Hazelwood -- who recently appeared in Milwaukee to promote the book and returns for another round of promo in October -- is now a full-time writer living in New York and working on the follow-up to “Model Student.” We recently asked her about her novel, the Milwaukee ties and more.
OMC: Let's start with the dreaded question asked of all novelists, how much of "Model Student" is based on your own life? Were your parents hippies and was the modeling life as dark and dangerously tempting (drugs, plastic surgery, eating disorders) as it seems?
RH: As fantastical as they might seem, all of the modeling scenes in “Model Student” were inspired by either my own experiences or by the experiences of models that I interviewed, so, yes -- shockingly -- the industry is just as dark and dangerously tempting as portrayed. Many of the university scenes in “Model Student” were also based on real-life situations -- though, thankfully, I did not flash my day-of-the-week panties to the entire freshman class! The area furthest from reality is Emily’s -- my protagonist’s -- personal life. Were my parents hippies? Well, my father is a retired corporate lawyer and I think that just about says it all.
OMC: Maybe you can tell us a bit about the genesis of the book. Did the idea for Model Student arise before the desire to write a novel or was it the reverse and modeling was a subject you knew well?
RH: I’ve always loved to write. I’d even go so far as to say I didn’t mind -- “loved” would be a stretch -- writing papers in college; it was one of my most consistently creative outlets. I know: get a life. That said, it’s a big leap to go from writing a paper to writing a book.
The genesis for “Model Student” occurred when I was modeling and would look at what was happening around me and think “someone has to write about this.” Years later, when I was feeling restless in my marketing job and searching something more fulfilling, I decided that someone was me. The fact that the subject I knew about happened to be a juicy one made taking that leap slightly less daunting.
OMC: Tell us about your exit from the modeling world. Was it abrupt; did you decide you'd had enough? Or was it more gradual?
RH: In real life, my career arc was not as steep as Emily’s. I wasn’t as gung ho on modeling when I began, which in turn meant I didn’t become as abruptly disillusioned with it. I modeled for 13 years. Looking back, I stayed in it too long. By the end, I really didn’t like it. But, it was my first job, it was what I knew, and I think first jobs, like first loves, can be hard to leave.
OMC: Luckily you had a Yale degree to fall back on -- or did that come later? What happens to the women whose modeling careers end and they've got nothing? Is it like that picture we have of the non-millionaire athlete who breaks his leg and is doomed to a life of penury?
RH: I went to college right off the bat. Like Emily, I got representation at a New York City modeling agency the same week I went trotting off to freshman orientation. My agents in New York put tremendous pressure on me to quit school; “postpone,” they’d whisper, usually in dulcet tones whilst rubbing my neck, “just for a year or two.”
I came pretty close -- I accelerated a semester in the middle of Yale, which meant that I took the summer off plus three additional months. But I went back (my agents wept). I’m so glad I did. All those models who postponed college “just for a year or two” ended up putting it off until they were older (night school: not the fun co-ed experience), or, more often, indefinitely.
Acting is still the top aspiration for most models. The ones that don’t make it often seem to go into sales -- (although) one could argue, that’s what they’ve been doing all along -- or, randomly, jewelry design. It seems like every time I open a magazine, another model has launched a jewelry line!
OMC: Are you ever asked to give advice to kids who want to become models? What do you tell them?
RH: I tell young women a few things. The first thing is to be frugal. There are a lot of places out there all too willing to tell you that you, yes, you have just what it takes to be a super model. Naturally, this praise is immediately followed by a plea to enroll in an expensive modeling course. You don’t learn how to model in a classroom. A legitimate agency that thinks you’re the real deal is willing to invest in you as much as you are in them.
My other main piece of advice is to stay in school. Modeling is like professional sports: you don’t have many years in the game. For every model that becomes the catwalk equivalent of Brett Favre (now that’s a lovely image, isn’t it?), there are thousands who have a good, steady careers but don’t bank enough to retire. Going to college is not only important developmentally, it also broadens your options for the next phase of your working career. And in the era where 40 is the new 30, you’re not really giving anything up.
Many of the models I worked with are still going. They might be modeling granny jeans, but they’re still going.
OMC: You're a Wisconsin girl, right? What's your background here?
RH: On Wisconsin! I was born in Milwaukee and raised in Cedarburg. My parents still live in the same farmhouse that I grew up in, along Cedar Creek, and my grandmother, aunts and uncles are in the area as well. I grew up drinking kegs of Miller and going to Summerfest. Whenever I come home, I love going for Serbian food at Three Brothers or to any number of Polish or German restaurants. Milwaukee does the best wurst.
OMC: Do you get back here often?
RH: Three to five times a year.
OMC: How has it changed since you lived here? Would you consider coming back to live here?
RH: One thing I’ve really noticed is the northern expansion. I went to University School, in River Hills. When I was little I got taunted for living in the sticks, the most frequent comments being, “It must be long distance to call your house,” and “What time did you get up to milk the cows?” My reply: “Actually, we have chickens, not cows,” did little to improve my rep.
Now most of those former classmates live in Mequon. Mequon is big time: a cinemaplex! A Starbucks! Fancy shoe stores! Frozen custard! (Okay, every place in Milwaukee has frozen custard, but still…)
OMC: Now that the book is done and you've done a book tour and the media blitz, what's next? Are you writing a sequel, something completely different, nothing at all?
RH: I am about 70 pages into my second novel. This book is quite different from “Model Student”. It follows four characters, two men, two women, over the course of a summer and is set in both New York City and in that ocean playground of the rich and famous: the Hamptons. Now, getting cheese curds into this book is going to be quite a challenge…
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
