Meet Mia - Cavan's newest model
Jason and Kaka McCabe are proud parents. Their little girl, Mia, is two years and three months old and already she has a featured as a model in a major national advertising campaign.
A 10-foot image of little Mia has been on display in the front window of the local Dunnes Stores in Cavan. The mini model’s dad explained how little Mia came to be a big star.
“Everyone commented on how cute Mia was,” Jason tells the Celt. “We thought there is no harm in signing her up.”
Kaka selected ‘Not Another’ agency as the agency to represent Mia. “Some of the modelling agencies out there look like scams, but this had a good reputation,” the mother explained.
Founded in 2015, Not Another agency is a relatively new creative agency that represents models, stylists, photographers and make-up artists.
The models on Not Another’s books have graced the pages of French and Italian Vogue, Dazed, iD Magazine, GQ, Esquire and Women’s Health, and strutted on the catwalks for designers like Alexander Wang, Neil Barrett, Ashley Williams, Dries Van Noten, Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana.
“We didn’t hear anything for almost one and a half years,” Kaka said of the process.
Jason continues the story from when the agency contacted the McCabes: “Kaka went up with Mia to Dublin when they put together the portfolio. Once we sent in the original head shots, they took over from there. They only use their own photographers.”
Mia responded well to being the centre of attention: “She loved it,” Jason laughed; “Oh yeah,” Kaka added.
“The shoot for Dunnes was held in headquarters. It was big open space and she loved running around and playing,” the proud papa said.
“You can see in the pictures that she is a very happy child. She likes having her photo taken,” Kaka said.
Mia took her new career with gusto: “The people in Dunnes said she was very professional. They scheduled a four-hour slot to have the pictures taken, but the first time she was in and out in less than an hour. She went in, did her poses and got out,” Jason recalled.
The first time the family saw Mia larger than life came as a bit of a shock: “It was weird because we were in Dublin when we saw the posters up. The first ones we saw were on top of the shelving units. They were just small pictures with a price beside it.
“We were a bit taken aback, we showed them to Mia and she was definitely interested, we got some pictures of her pointing to herself, but it probably had more of an effect on us [Mom and Dad] than it did on her,” Jason said.
There has been more work for Mia since her 10 foot image graced the window of the local Dunnes Stores near where the McCabe family live.
“That was the autumn range,” Jason explains. “Mia and Kaka went up for another shoot for a Christmas campaign, we don’t know when or what those pictures are being used for just yet.”
Dunnes Cavan have since given the family the giant portrait of their little girl.