Monday morning. Stacy Ericsson stepped out of the elevator and walked down the hall to her office at New Model Talent. It had been a tough weekend. After five years her relationship with Steven was finally over. It was a long time coming, but now that it was finally here, she felt ... empty. Not mad, not sad. Just empty. She decided to fill the void with work.

She opened the door to her office suite and was greeted by her assistant, Meredith. Meredith was fresh out of college. She was a cute girl with her blonde hair in a pony tail, big glasses, brown eyes, and a fashion style that could be best described as quirky librarian. Stacy knew she had a beautiful figure under her frumpy sweaters and pleated skirts. Miranda ha started out as a client of NMT when she was fourteen, so Stacy had seen her in all kinds of outfits, including bikinis and even a few nude shoots.

“Morning, Stace,” said Meredith in her typical cheery voice. “How was your week-”

Stacy cut her off with a big hug. The two had known each other for so long that occasional displays of affection weren’t entirely out of the ordinary. Stacy was more like a big sister than a boss to Meredith.

“Oh, we’re hugging,” said the younger girl, a little surprised. “Yeah hugging, that’s what we do.”

“Sorry,” Stacy replied, taking a step back. “I broke up with Steven so if I’m a little off you know why.”

Meredith smiled knowingly. “Don’t worry about it. Your coffee is already on your desk and we’ve got a busy day to keep your mind off things.”

“Thanks, Mere.”

She started for her office. Meredith followed with her iPad in hand. Her bare feet smacked on the tile floor. Meredith had big thick size nine feet with short toes. Her nails were painted a brilliant white.

“Okay so here’s what you’ve got coming up today,” said Meredith as she scrolled through emails on her tablet. “You’ve got new client interviews all morning, and a meeting with the kohl’s catalog at 2:00, and the Hannah from Teen Feet called. She needs two girls and a boy next week for a shoot with some Disney kid.”

“It’s not even eight, Hannah must really be in a tizzy,” remarked Stacy. They walked into the office and Stacy sat down behind her desk.

“I was thinking maybe McKenna Thomas, Jessica Lewis, and David Reyes,” said Meredith.

Stacy smiled. Meredith was young but she already understood the business and knew how to give the right jobs to the right models. “That’s a good idea, Mere. But McKenna got to do the last one. How about we give Courtney Johnson a shot?”

“You got it,” answered Meredith as she made a note on her iPad. “I’ll make the calls.”

“When’s my first appointment?”

“8:30. I’ll send you her head shots.”

“Thanks.”

Meredith left the office, leaving Stacy alone. She turned on her computer and started scrolling through her own emails. There were pages and pages of emails from parents wanting to get their kids into modeling. There were casting calls from all the big TV networks and casting directors. And of course there were advance copies of all the magazines and ads she got her models into.

Stacy started modeling the day she was born. Her mom was an actress on one of the biggest soaps of the 80’s, so when Stacy was born the paparazzi was all over the hospital. Only eight hours old and her photo was on the cover of People. From there on, her mom’s connections got her modeling gigs whenever she wanted. She was the face of K-mart’s fall 1994 kids catalogue. She was in ads in all kinds of magazines. When she was a kid the toy ads were her favorite because she usually got a free sample of whatever they were selling. Then when she was fifteen she was one of the original models for Pink. She’d done swimsuit shoots before, but she loved the way she felt showing off her toned body and cute little tits in the tween underwear. After that she was doing bikini ads and underwear shoots all the time. She had a great figure and her perky B-cups made her an ideal model to sell bras and bikini tops.

She got steady work through her 20’s, even landing a few speaking roles in commercials and small parts on TV shows. As she got older she saw her model friends getting less and less work. Some left of their own accord to start families or change careers. Others just couldn’t find work after thirty. A few made the jump to maternity and “mommy modeling” but others just couldn’t. So when Stacy was 28 she left the hustle and bustle of New York and Los Angeles and moved to the up and coming market of Atlanta to start her own agency, specializing in youth and teen talent. She picked the right time to relocate to the South because within a year it seemed like every marketing firm in the country was hiring Georgia based production companies, and that meant lots of work for Stacy’s clients. She was even able to establish good connections with other agencies to help her clients get work when they got too old for they type of jobs she could get them.

Meredith was one of Stacy’s first clients. Through Meredith she was able to watch the demands of the industry change. The usual gigs were still available, but now there were a whole slew of things that Stacy had never even been offered. There was a demand for more risqué shoots with younger models. Models as young as fifteen were being photographed fully nude. This wasn’t porn. In the pictures nothing “sensitive” was visible. Much of their bodies were in display, but their breasts and genitals were hidden. Still, everyone on set saw these kids with out a stitch of clothes on.

The change that really surprised Stacy came when foot fetishes hit the main stream. There had always been foot models. Stacy had done lots of shoots where her feet were featured: sandals, peep toe heels, nail polish, and etc. But her feet were never the product. She knew that there were people who got off to her feet, but those were creepy weirdos. But once publishers knew there was a market for feet pics, hundreds of websites and magazines popped up to capitalize on the foot craze. There were scuzzy sites and magazines like Foot Heaven and Feet Fiends that we’re basically the Playboy of foot sites. Then there was the misleadingly titled Little Foot that showed pictures and videos of underage girls in lingerie showing off their feet. It was gross, but the girls were covered just enough to avoid being called child pornography.

As weird as the foot thing was to Stacy, she didn’t stay out of it entirely. After all, kids were talking about feet the way she and her friends used to talk about swimsuits and hair clips. There were classy and professional publications that featured feet that she was able to get her clients into. She didn’t understand foot fetishes, but she had an eye for cute feet. Every company doing a shoot in Atlanta went to New Model Talent for foot models between five and nineteen. Stacy was protective of her clients and knew which shoots to send her models to and which ones could kick rocks. Random photographer with no social media presence asking for a ten year old? No way. A magazine that didn’t put kids in sexual poses and even had celebrity spreads and interviews? Now that was right up her alley.

The company that understood how to reach a wide audience with foot content was Carlsbad publishing. They started out as a web based celebrity gossip company, but found major success when they launched Feet! a magazine and website that featured tasteful photo spreads of barefoot women and interviews with celebrities that of course included pictures of their feet. They blew up after their fifth issue, called Emma Edition because of its interviews and photo spreads of Emma Stone, Emma Roberts, and Emma Watson. Their photos of the Emmas posing barefoot together “broke the internet” and suddenly every actress was showing off their feet. One of the things that made Feet! so popular was their willingness to feature models of all different body types.

The success of Feet! led Carlsbad to create a strong of spinoffs. Teen Feet was for girls thirteen to nineteen. Feet Junior was for girls and boys twelve and under. For anyone interested in male feet there were Men’s Feet for adult males and Boys Feet for teenagers. Everyone knew that there were creeps using these pictures for their spark bank, but they were also popular with people who wanted to see cute feet and get tips on styling their own nail polish.

Teen Feet and Feet Junior were great gigs for Stacy’s clients. Not only did her models get featured in solo spreads and group shoots, but the celebrity shoots always needed other kids to show the celebrity girl having fun with kids her age. Nickelodeon and Disney channel stars flew to Atlanta just to take pictures with NMT models. Some of these kids were real brats that made everyone else miserable, but most of them were just regular kids when you turned the cameras off. Stacy’s favorite celebrity guest was Regan Revord from CBS’s Young Sheldon.

Stacy slipped off her heels and looked down at her own feet and wondered if she would have made it in a foot-centric world of modeling. Her feet weren’t big, but at size 8 they weren’t small either. She had long toes and perfectly pedicured nails. She wasn’t much for colors and usually opted for clear coat or French tips. And she was wearing the silver toe ring her mother had given her for her thirteenth birthday.

At thirty-six, Stacy still had model good looks. She was five foot ten. Not runway height, but far from short. Her auburn hair was long and silky and a healthy diet and good life choices kept her face looking young and full of life. Her body was slim and toned, and her boobs were still small and perky. The only noticeable weight gain was in her butt, but big butts were in so having a fat ass was not a problem. Her black and blue dress fit every curve just right, and if you looked closely you could see the belly button ring poking her dress. She wasn’t allowed to have body piercings when she was modeling, so the belly button ring was a thirtieth birthday present to herself.

She clicked on an email from Teen Feet. Attached was an advanced copy of their next issue. She clicked through to the featured article, an interview and photo set with child star Alaya High, better known by her stage name, That Girl Lay Lay. Stacy had no idea who this girl was until she met her on set. Apparently she was a rapper and an actress on some Nickelodeon show. She was a cute fifteen year old black girl with a great body and cute feet. But Stacy wasn’t reading the article to learn about Lay Lay. She wanted to see what photos of her girls they used. It was a summer issue and the theme was pool party, so there were pictures of her models in bikinis alongside this child star. Her girls all looked great and the shots of their pretty little soles and toes were all perfect. Lay Lay had great feet, but in Stacy’s eyes, all of the NMT girls had much prettier feet.

Featured right beside Lay Lay in every group photo playing the role of “best friend” was the cutie that was becoming a star in her own right, McKenna Thomas. McKenna had been with NMT since she was nine. Now she was fourteen and one of the most requested models from the agency. She had gorgeous tan skin and big brown eyes inherited from her Venezuelan mother. Her hair was long, brown, and wavy. She was a bit on the thick side and filled out her blue bikini top and bottom very well. She had a big thick butt and at only fourteen was already rocking some plump C cups. She had a bit of a belly, but it was cute and hadn’t been an issue in getting her good work. And of course she had great little feet. She had chubby little size six feet with short toes.

“Stacy, your eight thirty is here,” said Miranda over the intercom. “Should I send them in?”

“They’re a little early,” replied Stacy.

“It’s Helen Burns and her daughter.”

Stacy smiled and responded, “send them in.”

Helen and Stacy had been friends since their teens when they were working in New York. Back then they were both single, fit, and up for anything the modeling world threw at them. Then Stacy moved to LA and Helen quit modeling to get married and have kids. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but had recently reconnected on Facebook, discovering that they both lived in Atlanta now.

The door opened and in walked a teen girl and a short, chubby woman in mom jeans, a loose top, and sneakers. This was Helen. She had very light skin, long curly blonde hair, and blue eyes. She was still cute, but in a mommy way instead of a model way. She’d put on a bit of weight on belly, boobs, and butt. In other words, she had a mom-bod.

“Helen!” Screamed Stacy as she got up and hugged her friend.

“Hey, Stace,” replied Helen as she hugged back.

They separated and Stacy looked at the young girl beside her.

“And this must be Erin.”

Erin smiled and extended her hand to shake. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“You too,” said Stacy as she shook the young girl’s hand. “Let’s have a seat on the couch over here.”

Erin was thirteen, short, and very very skinny. She had a cute face with a couple spots of acne and green eyes. She wore big glasses with thick black rims. Her hair was blonde like her mom’s, but it was straight and hung down just below her shoulders. She was wearing a black knee length dress with rainbow polka dots. She had on flip flops and Stacy noticed that her feet were very small, her toes were short, and her nails were blue.

Stacy sat down on the couch. “So how have you been? How’s Brett and the kids?”

“They’re good,” answered Helen as she took a seat on the couch and pulled Erin onto her lap. “Everyone’s doing good. The twins are starting school this year.”

“Oh goodness! I remember when they were born! Time sure does fly.”

Helen nodded.

“How many kids do you have now?” Asked Stacy. “Five?”

“About to be six,” answered Helen with a soft smile.

“Congratulations! Erin are you excited for another baby in the house?”

“Yes!” responded the girl. “I get to help name this one.”

“She is great with kids,” said Helen. “And she’s gotten pretty good at changing diapers.”

Erin giggled. “And fixing bottles, and washing clothes, and giving baths, and burping, and rocking babies to sleep.”

“Well I might just have to hire you on to help with our child talent,” said Stacy.

“You got some little bitties?” Asked Helen.

“A few. But they’re all potty trained and honestly they aren’t any trouble. Now let’s talk about Erin. Why do you want to be a model?”

“Um ... well,” the teen started nervously. “I guess because I like clothes and fashion ... and I like having my picture taken ... and it sounds fun.”

Stacy smiled and nodded and grabbed her phone from her desk. She opened up a notes tab.

“It is fun. It’s not always easy and and it can be a lot of work, but it can be a lot of fun too,” Stacy told her and smiled. “But I’m sure your mom’s already told you plenty of those stories.”

“Not all of them,” laughed Stacy.

“Remember our last gig in New York? For the furniture store?”

“Barely,” Helen replied. “They let a bunch of nineteen and twenty year olds have free booze.”

Stacy laughed out loud. “We destroyed that store! I had to run away to Los Angeles!”

“You never told me that one,” said Erin.

“Honey there are a lot of things I haven’t told you,” Helen said with a chuckle.

“Anyway, let’s get back on track,” said Stacy. “What kind of work do you wanna do?”

“Anything I guess,” said Erin with a shrug.

“Good, good,” Stacy replied as she made a not on her phone. “Now I’ve just gotta ask you a few questions. They’re just for general information, and they won’t affect if we sign you or not.”

“Okay.”

“Alright,” started Stacy. “First question. How old are you?”

“Thirteen.”

Stacy sighed. “Geez. Making me feel old, kid.” Erin giggled.

“Alright, next question. How tall are you?”

“Four-ten.”

“Four foot ten ... alright. Weight?”

“Ninety four pounds.”

Stacy made a note of hero weight and continued the questions. “Dress size?”

“Double zero.”

“Shirt size?”

“Extra small.”

“Pants size?”

“Extra small women’s, ten twelve in kids.”

“You still wear kids clothes?”

“Yeah,” Erin answered.

“Good,” Stacy replied. “That’ll get you a lot more jobs. Shoe size?”

“Four,” Erin responded with a grin.

“Teeny tiny feet,” teased Stacy.

“And teeny tiny toes,” Helen chimed in.

Erin giggled and wiggled her short little toes.

Stacy admired Erin’s little feet then said, “So I don’t want you to be offended, but since your feet are so small you could model kids shoes ... even boys shoes.”

Erin laughed a little and said, “that’s fine.”

“When I was your age my feet played boys all the time,” said Helen.

“I’ll have to take off the nail polish,” said Erin.

“And what’s your bra size?”

“Um...” Erin stuttered as she turned beet red. “30 AA.”

“No need to be embarrassed, honey,” said Stacy. “Boobs are just part of being a woman, and they’re all perfect no matter the size.”

Erin smiled at that.

“Are you comfortable taking pictures in your underwear or in a swimsuit.”

“Yeah of course.”

“What about fully nude?”

“Um ... yeah. Yeah I can do that.”

“Helen, is that okay with you.”

“Yes, as long as I get to be at any shoot where she’s ... exposed.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Stacy replied. “Now that we’ve covered all that, let me just say I’d love to sign you right here right now. If you sign with us, I can get you jobs with the best marketing firms and publications in the business. What’s your favorite magazine?”

Erin smiled softly and said, “Teen Feet.”

Stacy responded, “A lot of our models do shoots for Teen Feet. They actually request our girls all the time.”

“I know,” said Erin. “I’ve read every issue ... it’s my dream to do a shoot with McKenna Thomas.”

“That could be arranged,” said Stacy. “In fact I’m gonna let you in on a little secret. Only me and a couple people at the magazine know about it, but McKenna is getting a spotlight feature in a couple months. Maybe she’ll let you be in a few pictures with her.”

Erin lit up. “I would love that!”

“Good,” said Stacy. “So we can make all that happen. Our legal team will handle all your contracts, and our staff will manage your portfolio and keep your resumé up to date. In exchange, we get fifteen percent of your earnings. How does that sound?”

“Um ... I think it sounds good,” answered Erin. “How does it sound to you, Mommy?”

“Sounds great!”

“Good!” Stacy exclaimed. “On your way out just ask Meredith and she’ll get you all the paperwork. But first, how about some pictures?”

“Yeah!” Squealed Erin.

Stacy got up and grabbed a digital camera from a drawer in her desk. She pointed at a blank wall and said, “just go stand there by the wall.”

Erin stood by wall. She kicked off her flip flops and smiled. “So what are these gonna be for.”

“These won’t go out to anyone, we just like to keep some pictures of our models on file. It helps us out when deciding which jobs to recommend to each model,” Stacy answered. “We take new ones every six months. In the future our head of photography Ryan will take these at our little office studio, but I like to do these first ones myself. Now smile!”

Erin smiled and Stacy took the picture. She had Erin do a few more poses and different faces.

“You are so stinking cute!” Stacy told her. “Now can we take a few in your underwear?”

“Sure!”

Helen helped Erin take off her dress and said. “I figured you want some underwear shots so I had her wear her best undies.

She took the dress off of her daughter, leaving the young girl standing there in white silk panties with pink trim and a matching bra.

“Adorable,” Stacy commented as she looked her up and down. “Aww you have an outie! That is so cute! I always wished I had an outie.”

“I’m the only one of my friends with an outie,” Erin remarked

“Can you show me your butt?”

“Sure!”

Erin turned around to show Stacy her butt. She had a big, round, perfect bubble butt.

“Wow girl, look at that booty!”

“Got it from my mama,” Erin said with a smile looking over her shoulder.

“You sure did,” said Stacy. “Now hold that pose.”

Stacy snapped the picture, making sure to get a great angle on Erin perky butt. She got a few more pictures of the young teen in her underwear. Then she took close up shots of Erin’s feet. Her toes. Her soles. Toes spread. Toes scrunched.

After the informal photoshoot, Erin put her clothes on. The mother and daughter left the office and Stacy sat down behind her desk. She didn’t usually sign models on the spot, but Erin was cute as could be and there would be no problem finding her work, and she knew the young girl had the spirit and charisma needed for the modeling life. Plus she was the child of a friend.