Elite is now running informal workshops to train the parents of their new stars, answering questions and advising them on what lies ahead. “We want the parents to be fully educated, so they can be good partners when we manage their child’s career,” Hamil says. Parents get two-hour orientations as soon as they arrive for an initial visit to New York, with the approach tailored to their socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. There are follow-up lunches and dinners—and though a group setting might seem like a good idea, it’s something Young avoids. “You can have a conservative family at the same table saying they’d never let their child do a certain kind of job, and a liberal family saying how silly it would be to turn it down.”

This summer, Elite New York will bring 30 American girls to test the waters in New York; IMG Models brings in five or six. This will add up to tens of thousands of dollars invested in mothers and fathers, as a sort of insurance. “We have someone to hold accountable,” Young says.

The agencies are expecting a payoff in better performance. They typically take 20 percent of every paycheck and charge an extra 20 percent on top of the model’s total fee directly to the client. Elite will only keep a model if she earns at least $150,000 her first year, Hamil says. But top models such as Stephens and Iman can make in the range of $750,000 to $2 million a year. In 2007, Gisele Bündchen alone earned $35 million.

Ali Stephens’ mother says she always travels with her 17-year-old daughter to shoots, shows, and castings. “When Ali faces rejection, or if clients complains about her muscular runner’s legs, I’m there to turn her focus on the positive comments she has gotten,” she says.

China Iman, who travels with her daughter, featured as one of the next supermodels on the cover of May 2007 Vogue, is able to act as chaperone because of her flexible schedule as a flight attendant. “I heard Tyra Banks saying she never encountered the ugly side of modeling because her mother was always there, and I never wanted Chanel to be alone either,” says Iman, who always wears black at shoots so she can blend in. “The vices of the fashion industry are all out there, from the club promoters charming the girls to go out and maybe more, to smoking, drinking, and drugs. But when a girl has a parent with her, these people respect you in a different way and leave you to focus on the modeling.”