Rising Stars: Meet Holly Graves

Today we’d like to introduce you to Holly Graves.

Hi Holly, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Wow I realized that as of this year, I have worked for about half of my life in the same career. Basically at 15 I was scouted by a modeling agency, and by 16, I had moved to New York. I never particularly wanted to be a model – Never quite had a interest in the stereotypical ‘girlie’ girl things. In fact when I was scouted, I believe had on Dickie’s men’s skateboarding pants would barely ever brush my hair (my mom can attest to the many of arguments on this topic, haha). However, at 16 and being from Texas (spending a large part of my childhood on our family ranch and feeling the normal angsty teenage feelings) all I wanted was to leave home, travel and be independent (aka rebel haha)– bit of teenager gone rogue.
This seems a lot more simple than it was but I’ll spare everyone with too much detail here and jump to the cliff notes version – the majority of my beginning of my career was spent being based in NYC and traveling to Europe. However my career shifted away from runway/editorial jobs and more towards catalogue/commercal I started working more in different markets such as Australia. So with this changed I decided to primarily base myself out of Los Angeles to be able to be more central to all my markets. I never really imagined myself modeling for this long, in fact I completed my high school studies online as well as my University degree in Dietetics and sports nutrition with the thought of maybe one day having a career in these fields, I guess life had other plans. Haha but pretty rad other plans!

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Describe smooth? Haha, aside from the typical model anxieties/struggles we hear about often in the media (physical appearance, nomadic lifestyles, societal judgments, etc.). I think one of the biggest struggles for me personally has been being able to find your authentic, genuine self among a world where you wear so many different ‘masks’ from day to day. As models its our job to transform or perform a certain way to suit a brand’s aesthetics. And often times this can mask our true identities and personalities that lie underneath. . I don’t think by looking at me people would be able to guess that my Spotify is filled with classic rock, extreme heavy metal, and alternative music – or that I have a love for body adornment and a passion for the stranger things in life. However, there’s a fine line in modeling between ‘dressing for the job you want and ‘dressing for your own personal style.’ As my career has been primarily based in being blonde, commercial catalogue model, I can’t necessarily drastically make changes to my physical appearance or show up to client meetings looking like a heavy metal hippie chick, haha. Or the client might not think Id be able to sell their products to their standards which in turn means I don’t book the job… I find this topic quite hard to explain as most people in this world must adhere to set of standards in the workplace that they may not agree with…However as a model it is our faces and appearance that is literally being portrayed to the world through pictures that we typically don’t have much say in choosing or styling – and many times it can be easy to lose yourself or feel conflicted between what our images may portray to the world versus the person behind that curated image. I know this isn’t coming out as best as Id hope to explain it – but hopefully it makes a little bit of sense to some out there. I guess I’m also hoping that by talking about these things even a little bit can help others relate and feel that we don’t have to fit into one neatly wrapped personality box.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
It’s hard to say what I’m ‘known’ for as I don’t know how others would view me in the industry. On the surface one could say I do mostly catalogue print and commercial type work. But I think I would say I’m most proud of my work ethic, the relationships I have formed throughout this career, the travel opportunities and the life education those experiences have provided for me, and just how far I’ve come in this industry.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
Ooof this is another loaded question in this industry – I hope Ill still will be modeling or in this industry to some capacity as I truly love my job… But being an industry that’s lies in both complete personal opinion and also caters to consumers, trends in this industry can really go either way and can flip from moment to moment. It’s so hard to predict. As I said before – I couldn’t have ever imagined being a model for as long as I have and will continue to have! So that goes to show just how much the industry has changed in the last decade of my career and I think a lot of it has to do with stronger voice that many of us have nowadays.
One thing that has become very apparent is that consumers are having much larger say and influence on who they want to see in their advertising. Additionally We (models) now have a lot more power to control our social media feeds and stories that showcases our work and personality. Whereas in the past, most communication between models and clients has been primarily or exclusively conducted through an agent or agency. This new autonomy I think can drastically shape the future of the modeling industry and I’m curious to see how this affects everyone along the chain of the advertising/modeling industries.

A personal opinion on a much different topic is that I would love to see more support in terms of financial and career education for models within this quite often confusing industry – from agencies, clients, etc. Yes, there needs to always be a focus on mental health and emotional support especially when dealing with young girls and body image that goes hand in hand with the modeling world – but as someone who has been in the industry for quite a while, it has become clear that many of us are or have been pretty lost on the ‘business handlings’ within the industry… Whether this comes from agencies, model managers, or other models, I’d love to see some kind of education on topics such as accounting, finances, taxes, contracts, savings, 401Ks/retirement accounts, usage for picture rights, expenses specific to agencies and models and so much more. There is no guidebook or education degree you can get in modeling that helps us navigate this world. So I guess I would love to see a shift in the back end of the industry that promotes more open communication and education between models and their agents on these topics. I think the more education you have about your career then the more supported and confident you will feel conducting yourself in this industry and space. Who knows – maybe I’ll even hold workshops on these topics for models and agents but we’ll see 🙂

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hollygraves_/?hl=en

Image Credits
main picture: Meg Batson (@megbatphoto) order from left to right on other thumbnails Pixie Bella (@pixpop) Meg Batson Meg Batson Yana Kalina (@yanakalina) Cheyenne Ellis (@cheyenneellis) Cheyenne Ellis Yana Kalina Yana Kalina