Meet the mothers aiming for their business to be the leading children’s modelling agency in the UK
Meet the mothers aiming for their business to be one of the leading children’s modelling agencies across the UK.
Emma Russell is the founder of Beau Blue Modelling, and she and her business partner Amy Sachon have been in the production industry for more than two decades combined.
Last September, Emma decided to start a children’s modelling agency as, being a producer by trade, she constantly cast children for her shoots.
Around a month later, she enrolled children’s hair and makeup artist Amy to get involved – and the pair now work with huge brands including Next, Reiss and George at Asda.
When asked why September 2024 was the right time to launch the business, Emma told the Chronicle & Echo: “I had not long had a baby and it’s something I’d always been interested in pursuing alongside my production work. I had the drive and decided it was the perfect time.”
Emma had not seen Amy for a long time before the launch of Beau Blue Modelling, as she too had a baby.
After the business had seen a great level of success within the first month with only a few children on the books, Emma knew the potential for growth if she and Amy joined forces and their contact books.
The pair handle briefs and anything creative together – with Emma then focusing on child licences, safeguarding and accounting, and Amy dealing with submissions and new models joining the agency.
As Emma still runs her production company The Creative Edit, this is also something they offer to brands they work with.
Companies will tell Emma and Amy what their brief and budget is, and they arrange the art direction, styling, makeup, producer and options for models as an all-inclusive package.
“We are focused on inclusion, diversity and bringing fresh faces and talent to the business,” said Emma. “We go out scouting for kids and have social media days where we push them to clients.”
With extensive experience as a producer and a makeup artist, Emma and Amy are confident they know what certain brands want from their child models.
The pair are working mums and the aim is to build Beau Blue into one of the leading children’s modelling agencies in the UK. This will enable them to spend more time with their children and avoid working long days like in the production industry.
Beau Blue Modelling operates from Horton village, where they host content and headshot days at the heart of the Northamptonshire countryside.
“If you opened somewhere like London, there would be huge overheads initially,” said Emma. “We can do this from anywhere in the world on our laptops, and Northampton is central for everyone.”
When asked her proudest achievement since launching the business, Emma said: “Getting our kids into huge brands. One of our girls did an autumn-winter campaign for Reiss in the Natural History Museum when it was shut. They are new faces that have never been seen before and we scouted them.”
Looking to the future of Beau Blue, Emma would love to launch a talent agency component to the business to place the child models in television commercials and video-based projects.