Trinity Dubuc-Fraser is a busy 12-year-old with sports activities (she plays on three ringette teams and baseball in the summer), drag racing and now modelling and acting.
Her first modelling job was completely spontaneous. While visiting her grandparents she was spotted at a park by a yoga studio owner who asked her to model their clothing line. Trinity was 10 years old.
“I thought it was really cool,” she said.
“I liked it. I wanted more.”
A recent family trip to Las Vegas included family portraits. Trinity’s mother Dawn chose individual shots of her daughter and sent them to Prince George agent Jana Phillips. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The family met with Phillips in July of this year and learned more about the reality of the industry and what it would demand of Trinity and her parents.
“When I met with her I realized she’s a relatively mature 12-year-old, an old soul and I look for that,” Phillips said.
“I really liked her. She’s beautiful and has many of the requirements like height.”
Phillips felt the first thing Trinity should aim for was a modelling and talent competition in Vancouver, Nov. 7 – 9, called Faces West but she needed some training before that event.
“I knew at the Faces West convention she’d do very well and the different scouts would be wowed by her and they were,” Phillips said.
Trinity prepared for the cold read, wrote a commercial (her fantasy product was an ego-spray that provides instant self-confidence), two runway presentations, a monologue and a stroll before the international scouts carrying two photos from her portfolio.
Much to everyone’s surprise, Trinity swept almost every category in her age group, the 5 – 13 category.
“She won almost every award she could and I’ve never seen that before,” Phillips said.
In addition to first in sportswear runway, cold read and scouts parade, Trinity was first runner up in dress runway and monologue and second runner-up in her commercial presentation. But that’s not all, she also brought home Top Child Model and Top Child Talent trophies. Quite a haul.
Trinity’s father Kevin Fraser, who couldn’t attend the November event as he was out-of-town with Trinity’s sister at a ringette tournament, was in constant communication with his wife and couldn’t believe it when he found out how well she did.
With about 400 models and actors in Far West, Trinity was in competition with approximately 40 – 50 in her category.
One of the advantages to attending Far West is the exposure to international scouts who are always looking for new talent.
Trinity reported that eight scouts contacted her at the event.
“They were from Tokyo, Los Angeles, Toronto, New York and Vancouver,” she said with a little smile.
“Tokyo wanted me there on Tuesday and the New York scouts also wanted me immediately.”
However, it was generally accepted that 12 is too young for modelling but Jana was quick to add her age wasn’t a barrier to acting (movies and commercials.)
Kevin said his wife was so proud of Trinity but as a family they will look at all the opportunities and take their time deciding what is Trinity’s next step.
“I was ready to jump into it,” she said with a big grin.
Phillips is excited for what the future may hold for Trinity.
“She won’t go overseas for at least a couple of years, she’s so young. But in the near future she’ll do acting work.”
When asked about Trinity’s talent, Phillips said someone of her calibre is rare.
“I have three right now with that kind of talent. It’s not every day they walk through your front door.”
Phillips went on to say Trinity comes from a great family and that will help her as she moves forward with this career.
“There’s a lot of myths about this industry. We do tons of training, workshops, seminars online. By the time they get to do this work, she’ll be ready. It takes a lot of dedication and training and it costs a lot of money but I know by age 14 both Trinity and her parents will be ready.”
Despite everything, Phillips said you never know how well or poorly someone may turn out.
Along with all her other talents, Phillips added Trinity has great poise behind the camera, “but she still also needs some tweaking. She knows that and she’s fine with that. She’s got a great attitude.”
When working with such a young talent, Phillips said she teaches them they can’t take this for granted.
“We don’t want the huge egos. Even with the older girls they are chaperoned and there’s no room or tolerance for free and easy partying.”
Phillips will remain Trinity’s agent. In the industry these agents are called mother agents and they set up contracts with the bigger international agencies.
“I handle the emotional side, deal with the parents and
such. The big agencies want to know ‘will they show up on time and what do I have to pay them.’”
She added the industry is a lot more secure but pretty tough, full of rejection and models and actors need to have a thick skin.
“Agencies are looking for different things in their models and actors, some like those in Milan, Italy are looking for the very thin, tall models but others look for different things.”
Phillips emphasized that at Trinity’s level mother agents do a lot of nutritional counselling and such.
“We want healthy models and actors,” she said.
Phillips and a group of investors are planning on shooting a film next year and Trinity is definitely in line for a role which she is very excited about.
Her father Kevin added the family is going to be very careful and will try to be well-informed in order to make the best decisions for their daughter.
When asked what plan B is, Trinity beamed and said she wants to be a race car driver.
Already fairly experienced, Trinity races a junior dragster at tracks in Prince George and Ashcroft.
“I’d love to be a top fuel dragster driver,” she said with a sparkle in her eye.
Her father admitted he didn’t know what to think about all this.
“Its something you’re almost scared to support because you don’t know what to expect,” he said.
“But you know you need to support your daughter. I guess its the same in everything.
“As we become more knowledgeable, we’ll help Trinity make the right decisions. She’ll always have our support and I think this is a good thing that’s happened for her.”