Lori Jones had a sixteen-year modeling career from 1981 through 1997. Her career began after graduating from the Barbizon School of Modeling, and signing on with the Wilhelmina Agency in Los Angeles.
Bookings included runway, print for magazines, catalogs, TV commercials, and an album cover for Kool and the Gang’s Ladies Night.
Lori flew to Milan, Italy in 1982 and ended up living and modeling in Milan, Germany and Spain over the next five years. Always interested in writing, she kept journals of her work experiences, extensive travels throughout Europe and Africa, and the people she met along the way.
Growing Up Beautiful is a fictional account of how three young models grow up in that foreign world of fashion in the 1980’s. Lori invites readers to join her characters on their trip abroad as they face challenges that will change their perception of who they are and what they want in life.
United as roommates by chance, Star, Joanne and Casey soon find their dreamed-of careers as models taking paths as different as their personalities.
Star, who leaves behind her waitress job along with a handful of crumpled up dollar tips, sees her beauty as a way move to the top of Milan’s social strata.
Joanne, raised in a privileged lifestyle, is expected to continue an Ivy League education, which doesn’t interest her as much as a young photographer she meets on a casting.
Casey is a naïve seventeen year old who is ready for adventure, even the dangerous kind.
Together, these three learn the funny, unexpected and sometimes ugly truths about growing up beautiful.
8 Great Storytellers 