Neil Hamil, director of North America at Elite Model Management, thinks he has found the next American supermodel. “She’s 16 years old, 5’11”, blond with blue eyes, and has a fresh, healthy, athletic look,” Hamil says.

Almost as important, she comes with “middle-class parents who are as sweet as apple pie,” he says. “The kind of parents I love.”

Surprisingly, the idea that a runway star would come from the U.S. is somewhat radical. In the early 1990s, American models such as Christy Turlington and Tyra Banks earned millions of dollars a year with their modeling assignments. But over the last decade, as celebrities have taken over magazine covers, cosmetics contracts, and even advertising campaigns, and as waves of foreigners became “of the moment,” few American models have caused sizable industry buzz.

That now appears to be changing. Models.com, a website that ranks models based on their high-profile jobs, lists 10 American women in its top 50 list. Chanel Iman, Karlie Kloss, and Ali Stephens are just a few who are seen as the next superstars. Stephens has appeared in Italian Vogue; Iman on the cover of American Vogue; and Kloss and Stephens opened the last two Calvin Klein shows, for Fall 2008 and Resort 2009—the first Americans to do so in eight years.

“These are all big indicators that good things are coming,” Hamil says. “It’s an important part of the fashion industry giving their thumbs up.”

Management agencies are betting big on the phenomenon, investing in new locations (Hamil found his model at Elite’s new office in Salt Lake City, which has five full-time scouts) and in model development—at least $35,000 on travel and living expenses, test shoots, hairdresser, clothes, nutritionist, trainer, and a runway walking coach, before a prospective model has even gotten a job. To shore up those efforts, they are also putting time and money in parents.

There are parents who misbehave, are jealous of other models, try to sell their daughters at castings, or interfere at shoots—eventually costing jobs and money.Parents are inextricably linked to the talent and have a huge effect,” says Matthew Hunt, creative director at Ford Models. “If you—or your parent—are not easy to work with, they’ll find someone who’s easier.”

When parents are involved in a positive way, models are more reliable and confident, and less likely to succumb to the vices of the industry, including drugs, alcohol, partying, and eating disorders. “We love having the parents with the model. It gives the girls a sense of comfort and ease, which shows at castings and at shoots,” Hunt says.

Of course, there’s always a flip side, industry insiders say. One mother fed her daughter diet pills that made her delusional. (“We got her off the pills and instead sent her to a nutritionist and a trainer,” says Roman Young, director of new faces at Elite.) A father sabotaged his daughter’s career by insisting she attend a swim competition instead of a shoot for British Vogue. “We understand that there’s more to life than modeling, but you often get just one shot in this industry,” Young says. There are parents who misbehave, are jealous of other models, try to sell their daughters at castings, or interfere at shoots—eventually costing jobs and money.