For the past six weeks we have been bringing you the candid diary of Ali Turner, courtesy of her mother Patty (tFS user modelmom). Ali's journal has chronicled the beginning of her modeling career in Paris at 15 years old (which was in 2002).

Part 6 marked the end of Ali and Patty's adventures in Paris, but not the end of Ali's diaries. Starting next week, we'll read about Ali's experience in New York, which immediately followed the adventure in Paris.

This segment of 'Becoming a Model' is from the perspective of Patty Turner, detailing her struggle with the fashion industry during the early stages of Ali's career.

Read Part 1 here,  Part 2 here, Part 3 here, Part 4 here, Part 5 here, and Part 6 here.

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In October of 2001 we had some pictures taken of Ali at a local studio. When the pictures came back, the photographer called us and wanted to meet. Ali and I went in to meet with him and he suggested we send Ali’s pictures into several agencies to see if we would get a response. I looked the addresses up on the internet and sent the pictures. They were professional portraits from a studio….not the Polaroids that most agencies want you to submit. I talked it over with Ali and her response was, “Why not”? We typed up a letter and enclosed the photos and pretty much forgot about it.

In November the phone rang and Ali looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Ford Models. They wanted her to come up the first part of January 2002 for an interview. It’s a 5-hour drive from where we live—a drive I would make many times in the coming months. They met with us, talked about how young she was, asked her to walk and signed her that day.

In February she went up for her first test shot. Ali, her sister Amy and I arrived at a hotel in downtown Chicago at 8:00 am and met with her agent and a photographer. There were 5 or 6 other girls there and he told Ali’s agent he wanted to shoot her last.