As a child, Malori Bailes tried to find her place in a small town in West Virginia, first she considered dance classes, but sadly she was met with ridicule, embarrassment, and humiliation at the hands of an instructor with a cold heart.
This led to a lot of insecurity and low self-esteem that Malori would suffer from for years to come. She found an advertisement in “Beat”, a popular magazine at the time made for young teen girls.
The advertisement was for “Barbazon” a modeling school that would be three hours away from her home in West Virginia. She approached her mom asking to enroll, her mom was hesitant to approve due to finances at the time, but the following year, she was financially able to give Malori those classes and start her on her path to where she is today.
Malori is a 5’6 country girl born and raised in a small town with big dreams and even bigger talent. What she lacked in height she more than made up for with heart.
For 14 weeks straight, Malori’s mom would make the grueling six hour drive to take her to this modeling school in Akron, Ohio and supported her growth and dreams as any mother should. Malori went on to do promotional work and advertisements for many companies such as Dove, Suave, Pantene, laundry detergent and more but this was not where she planned on stopping.
Malori went on to compete in modeling competitions in New York, Fashion Print, Cold Read, and more and went on to win the Cold Read award out of 400 people.
From that point on, she went to auditions and competed just trying to get that “Big Break” which came later in the form of a referral from a good friend in the industry. She then began modeling for fashion designer Brian David Jones (Thompson) and her career finally blossomed.
Malori went on to model in New York Fashion Week, Pittsburgh Fashion Week, Boston Fashion Week, and has been featured in Aspiring Lives Magazine, Oscars Gala’s, and so much more.
Malori credits a lot of her success to Brian David Jones for taking a chance and recognizing her talent. In an industry that is notoriously exclusive to 5’10 skinny, and competitive women, the petite 5’6 kindhearted Malori made her big splash.
Malori plans to model in any way she can for as long as she can, even joking about modeling senior citizen products one day. Behind the scenes she has also began teaching young students interested in the modeling industry, coaching, and judging for pageants, volunteering at her church to work with babies and children, and even takes time to care for the disabled and elderly.
Malori comes from a family full of love and support, her mom and grandmother (she calls her mimi) being her biggest cheerleaders as she followed her dreams.
She also recently got the opportunity to give some of that support back when her family adopted 3 beautiful children, and her now 14-year-old adoptive brother started his own small tumbler company.
Her brother Allen is a bright boy on the autism spectrum who uses his business to bring awareness and to inspire others with autism to follow their dreams. Malori is just about as involved as a loving sister could be not only supporting her adoptive brothers dreams and Allen’s business, but being involved in their education, hobbies, class trips, and just about anything to keep her close to them to show them how absolutely loved her siblings truly are.
When asked what advice she would offer to young people interested in the modeling industry, Malori got very serious and said,
“Never go to an audition or anything by yourself, there are bad people out there (touching on sex trafficking, assault and more) Always take someone you trust with you. And if you must give them money for them to hire you, its not legitimate.
Paying for your own photos is one thing, but nobody should ever pay to work for someone. You don’t pay Walmart to work at Walmart, modeling is no different. Also remember to stay humble, stay kind, and never give up. You will get a thousand no’s but one day there will be that one yes you have been waiting for.”
One message Malori would love to spread across the world is “help those in need, be kind and humble, spend time with the ones you love, never let anyone disrespect you, smile, tip your server and return your shopping cart, love yourself and say your prayers and put the Lord first. Always remember Jesus loves you and take care of and love the children for they are our future. And be kind to animals.”
To check out Brian David Jones’ work you may visit:
www.instagram.com/briandaviddesigns
Until next time.