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    Smile for the Camera: A Memoir
    Smile for the Camera: A Memoir
    Smile for the Camera: A Memoir
    Ebook345 pages3 hours

    Smile for the Camera: A Memoir

    By Kelle James

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Kelle James ran away from an abusive home at the age of fifteen to the best place she could think of. New York City. She was going to be a model, rich, famous, and she was going to find people who treated her right. She had no idea what was in store for her and within three days she was homeless and broke. What follows is her exceptional story of trying to make it on her own with nothing to her name and no one to trust. She endures a string of people, mostly men, who take advantage of her youth and beauty, many disappointments and rejections, and the most famous murder trial of the 1970s. This is the story of a girl losing herself before finding her way in the city that never sleeps.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
    Release dateNov 2, 2010
    ISBN9781442406254
    Smile for the Camera: A Memoir
    Author

    Kelle James

    Kelle James was a successful model. Her memoir is her first book.

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    Reviews for Smile for the Camera

    4/5

    15 ratings4 reviews

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    • 3/5
      This is going to be a challenge for me to review. 1st any survivor of abuse gets 10 stars from me. That being said I could barely justify 3 stars for this book. It was not the story it was the writing style.It was just to "see spot run" and the innocence of Kelle after awhile just got on my nerves. I do realize she didn't grow up in a major city but after awhile living there you would think she would have got an idea how things are. It just got on my nerves. I blame this on editing BTW. On the other-hand when she was letting me into a glimpse of her family life my heart broke. The courage she had to pack up and move to a very complex and dangerous city was just mind-blowing. So parts of this book I just didn't care for & others made me want to cry and hug her.
    • 4/5
      Sick of dealing with an abusive father, Kelle decides it’s time to leave home and heads for the Big Apple. She has dreams of becoming a model and New York City is just the place to make them come true. She is sure she will find fame, fortune, and people who treat her right, but what she gets is definitely not what she expected. Young, beautiful, and naive, she is taken advantage of by the men she encounters, gets herself mixed up in the most famous murder trial of the 70s, and still manages to make a name for herself in the modeling and acting industry. This is the true story of a 16 year-old girl who, with nothing to her name, fights for what she wants and overcomes adversary. I actually wasn’t planning on reviewing this since I almost felt like I was going to be reviewing her life, but I liked it so much that I needed to share! I normally shy away from anything that has to do with actual, real people, but this doesn’t even feel like a memoir most of the time--or at all really. I seriously wish my life had been this exciting at 16. She had more adventure in that year and a half then I’ll probably ever see in my entire life! But I wouldn’t have wanted to be in her shoes because she did not have an easy childhood. Throughout the book, she replays memories of her violent and verbally abusive father. I’m glad she had the courage to leave home when she did and that she gave her brother the courage to do the same. Unfortunately though, abuse is all she knows and, because she is extremely naive and new to the big city life, she gets sexually abused and pushed around. Luckily she meets and befriends people that show her what love really is. She encounters a lot of kind people her first week in the city, but two make a lasting impression. There is Rayna, also an aspiring model, who becomes Kelle’s best friend. Together they experience being broke and homeless and support each other through their various struggles. And there is Buddy who becomes almost like a father figure to her and is the first person to tell Kelle that he is proud of her. Despite what he is convicted of later in the book, I thought he was an alright guy. He is one of the few men she meets that doesn’t try to sleep with her and he constantly helps the two girls throughout the book. I think this is a great book for anyone, even those who, like me, do not normally go for this type of read; the writing is simple and the story is interesting.
    • 4/5
      Kelle James tells how, at the age of 16, she escaped from a dysfunctional family and made a life for herself as a young model and actress in NYC in the late 70s. Physical and emotional abuse suffered at the hands of her father; lewd, groping men encountered at every turn in the big city; a high-profile murder case in which she becomes embroiled -- it's a fascinating story, and Kelle is an endearing mix of wide-eyed country mouse naivete and tough girl temerity. She's savvy enough to avoid falling prey to pimps, and pulls out some fierce self-defense moves when lecherous men go too far, yet she endures a prolonged relationship with a creepy photographer who gets her drunk, takes her virginity, and insults her on their first date.The writing is simple and direct, with a wry sense of humor. She describes her boss: "He's small, thin, and tightly strung. He reminds me of a whippet. I think he's about thirty, but I'm much better at comparing people to dogs than guessing their ages." The prose is so immediate and uncomplicated that at times it feels like reading the diary of a 16-year-old instead of her memoir -- a cool and detached teenager who has separated herself from the often horrifying events she describes. In the epilogue she brings us up to date on the major characters and lets us know what she learned from the experience. Her message of self-reliance and empowerment comes off a bit didactic and self-congratulatory, but it's a good one: "...[I learned] to trust my instincts, to ask for more, to stand up for myself, and to fight for what I believe in...[men] were not going to save me. I had to save me." I wish she had made this point without hitting me over the head with it, but oh well.This will be popular with teens who like true stories about overcoming adversity. Girls looking for an insider's view into the modeling/acting business don't get to see much beyond the sleazy side of the industry.
    • 4/5
      Kelle James was 16 – and looked like 13 – when she waved goodbye to her abusive father and set off for New York City. Hoping to make it as model, she set up shop at the iconic Barbizon Hotel for Women. One go see with Ford Models later, she was told that she was too short and would never model in “this city”.Kelle did manage to get signed with My Fair Lady modeling agency, but actual jobs were slow to materialize. Kelle and fellow aspiring model Rayna bonded over their shared dreams, and equally shared homelessness, with Rayna looking out for her more innocent friend. Together, they endured living on $3 a day in a storage room of the modeling agency, crashing at abandoned and rat infested apartments and being prey to every “borderline pedophile in Manhattan”.In her memoir, James recalls her experience as a young model in 1970s New York, as well as her inadvertent participation in a famous murder trial. While at My Fair Lady, she befriended Buddy Jacobson who was convicted – wrongly in her opinion – of brutally murdering his ex-girlfriend’s fiance (read the story here).Smile for the Camera is a candid and honest account by a woman who persevered despite the odds, and who managed to tell her difficult story with a healthy dose of humor. At times, I had the feeling that James was relying too much on flashbacks and not delving enough into what her experiences in New York really meant. However, I appreciated any amount of introspection (difficult as it must have been) and James’ story kept me turning pages, eager to learn her fate.

    Book preview

    Smile for the Camera - Kelle James

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