The Inside Story of a Teen Beauty : High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Her face ought to be in pictures . . . and it often is.

Tara Dudas, a junior at San Clemente High School, has been a professional model for the past three years.

“When I was younger, I always wondered what it would be like to be in a magazine,” Dudas said. “So when I was 14, I enrolled in a modeling school.”

But it hasn’t been until recently that she’s taken a modeling career seriously.

“I went to an agency in Los Angeles where we went over my pictures,” Dudas said. “The agent saw that I was photogenic, so from there I was sent to photographers and started my portfolio.”

But success didn’t come knocking at her door right away.

“It takes a lot of time,” Dudas said of establishing a career. “I don’t like going on interviews or casting calls because big ones can have as many as 500 models. It’s hard for them to remember your face so you get called back. It’s a long process.”

Her first on-location modeling assignment--in Cabo San Lucas, where she modeled bathing suits for five days for Barefoot Miss of California--gave her a better understanding of the profession.

“I learned what time the day starts, how long the day is and what’s expected of you,” Dudas said. “You work along with the sunlight.”

As a beginning model, especially a teen-age one, Dudas found it wasn’t always easy to get work.

“When you first start out, nothing happens,” she said. “Then you get a few little jobs and you get real stoked, but then there is another period of nothing. It gets real discouraging at times because you feel as if you are getting nothing accomplished.”

She also has discovered that many people have misconceptions about a modeling career.

“Most people think that it’s glamorous and it’s easy . . . that all you have to do is stand in front of the camera and smile,” she said. “It’s not glamorous by any means; it’s extremely hard and not always fun.

“The circumstances you work under can be bad; it’s tiring, your clients expect a lot out of you, and it’s very time-consuming.”

Dudas said she simply tries to do her job and then go home. She said she knows she can’t be friends with everybody she works with.

“It takes a lot of self-discipline. It’s a real competitive business,” she said. “It requires a strong personality. . . . You have to be prepared to take a lot of criticism or you’re not going to last.”

Despite such drawbacks, Dudas does have praise for her chosen line of work.

“I have learned a lot within the past year, just by traveling, meeting different people and seeing various cultures,” she said. “It’s a great way to see the world.”

During the past year, Dudas has also been to New York, Puerta Vallarta, Brazil and Paris. She credits her increased maturity to the travel.

“I have definitely matured because I have experienced things most people won’t experience until they are out of school.”

While on assignment in Brazil last summer, Dudas was to room with a fellow model, but the other girl went home early. Dudas stayed on for three weeks--in daily telephone contact with her mother, who later pulled her out of that advertising agency.

“I am very careful to screen and pick agencies that say she has to be with me or is properly escorted,” said Beth Dudas, Tara’s mother.

But Tara believes, for the most part, that this is something she must do on her own.

“Modeling is my job . . . it’s my career,” she said. “My mom can’t come with me every time I have to work because she has a life and a career, too. She has to work, just like I do.”

Dudas’ face and figure can be found in Puma, P.C.H. Sports, Miller’s Outpost and Robinson’s clothing ads, as well as the recent bathing suit issue of Sport magazine.

“I mainly model sportswear and bathing suits,” she said. “I do print (modeling) and I do catalogue and runway, but I don’t like runway because I’m afraid of tripping.

“Modeling sportswear allows more action in front of the camera; it’s not so posy.”

Dudas has agents all over the country: Nina Blanchard in Los Angeles, San Diego Model Management, the Brand Model Agency in Orange County, Arlene Wilson in Chicago and Ford Models Inc. in New York.

Being accepted by Ford was a major step in Dudas’ career, as the agency is one of the world’s most important, representing many of the top models.

“I went to New York in June and interviewed with Eileen Ford,” Dudas said. “She’s a real classy lady but is also extremely old-fashioned. She takes in a couple models at a time to live with her for about two months. I’ll be going in the summer. She puts you on a strict program--in bed early, you can’t go out at night, no smoking and absolutely no drugs or you’re kicked out.”

One might imagine that such success would go to a young lady’s head, but with Dudas, it hasn’t happened. She is even a bit hesitant about talking about her job.

“A lot of people take it the wrong way,” she said of her success. “They immediately think that if you are a model, you think that you are someone special, and it’s not that way at all.

“It’s just a job, like any other job. . . . That’s how I view it, and that’s how it is. I don’t want people focusing on it.”

And Dudas has her priorities straight, too. She won’t hesitate to turn down an offer for something she doesn’t believe in.

“While I was in Brazil, I was offered a cigarette campaign,” she said. “They constantly hassled me to do it, but I wouldn’t because I just don’t feel it is right.”

And she realizes the importance of an education.

“Last year, my grades went down because I put modeling first,” Dudas said. “This year, school comes first. I’m taking it more seriously and have realized that it is most important.

“After graduation, I plan to go to Milan and Paris to model. Then I want to come back to the United States and go to college and eventually get into advertising.”