I will support my daughter unconditionally

Wang Jing,

My daughter is 6 years old. I let her take two courses, one was traditional Chinese dance, the other was child modeling. She quickly picked up the latter.

Luckily, she has a gift for catwalking, and won third place in a modeling competition in July. I let her take these classes because when she was very young, she was pigeontoed and I wanted to correct it.

She has modeling classes once a week, which come to 2,000 yuan ($282) a year.

Initially, her grandmother objected to the classes because she didn’t want her granddaughter to become a model.

She has a traditional mindset in which being a model or something like an actress is not a career that can provide social status.

I persuaded her by saying that Li Hanghui (my daughter) won’t become a model, and the classes will make her more confident.

Before, Hanghui was too afraid to take the subway because she would have to meet so many people.

Her little face would turn pale with fear. That meant she always stayed at home or at kindergarten and had never seen crowds of people, so I thought it necessary to take her out more to see the outside world.

After taking the classes for more than a year, I noticed her progress. She was not so timid and she dared speak with strangers. Even on the T-stage, she can behave herself. So applying for model classes was the correct decision for her.

I have read reports about child models working all day to make money, and to some extent they have lost their innocence.

I don’t feel worried about this, because Hanghui knows the difference between performance and real life. On the stage, she is serious and cool, but after classes or a performance, she becomes a lively, playful kid again.

If she has a chance to be a Taobao or T-stage show model, I won’t refuse the invitations for her. I will support her to do these jobs in her spare time if she wants. However, if it interferes with her schoolwork, I won’t encourage it.

Throughout her life, I will respect her choices and her talent. Parents shouldn’t impose their ideals on their children because it’s unfair to the child.

I will continue to support her talent and hobbies. If, in the future, she has an interest in, let’s say, physics or English, I will support her unconditionally.