ModelME, an innovative website and campus organization new to BC, is a student-run resource that allows girls to find clothes. It publicizes and celebrates the diverse fashion choices of BC students. Although the website officially launched a little over a month ago, the official launch of ModelME will be in Fall 2014. I met with the creator of ModelME, sophomore Elyse Bush, who emphasizes that her site is all about being confident in what you wear.
Can you describe ModelME BC’s purpose?
The purpose is to unify the women of Boston College and inspire confidence. It’s all about being happy in what you’re wearing and celebrating who you are. ModelME aims to remove the stereotype of BC as a “J.Crew catalogue,” highlighting that we all have different fashion choices and styles. When you go to school with a lot of beautiful people, that’s great, but you have to find beauty within yourself, too.
Why did you start ModelME BC?
I was shopping for a dress online for an on-campus event, and I realized how homogeneous and unrealistic the girls modeling the dresses on the websites were in the way they looked. I wanted to see “real” people, unedited, model the clothes I wanted to buy. Inspired by this experience, I created ModelME as an outlet for real people to model clothes others may want to buy.
Who is behind ModelME?
A professor in the tech department suggested some website builder sites to use, and I put the website together. Some of my close friends help manage the site, and they’re basically the executive board of ModelME. Their names are Stephanie Delma, Kara Gardin, Courtney Hall, Tolu Olabintan Oladapo, Martha Reis, and Jackie Shames.
How do you recruit girls to be “models” for the website?
At first, some of our e-board modeled and recruited their friends to model, as well. Now, ModelME plans to expand outside the network of our friends and draw more attention to the website with an online form that makes it easy to submit pictures via email of you or one of your friends modeling an outfit. On the ModelME website, you can click on “submissions” and find directions to submit a photo to the website. Additionally, some e-board members are “scouts” who take pictures of people in unique outfits. Your outfit doesn’t have to be from J.Crew or Bloomingdales. It can be from Target or Wal-Mart, but when you work what you’re wearing, we ask to take your picture.
What do you hope for ModelME in the future?
We launched in Spring 2014, but plan to fully take off this upcoming fall. We have a promo video planned for Fall 2014, and we will take part in the Student Involvement Fair in September, hoping to recruit more members. In the future, we want ModelME to have more of an interactive aspect; we hope people will eventually want to submit photos of others and of themselves to inspire others with their confidence from their outfits.
Join the movement! Visit their website and don’t forget to like ModelME BC on Facebook and follow them on Twitter!
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