Yeah, the woman I drove had a conversation with my wife and I over dinner tonight and answered every question we could think of. She told me that "most" agents charge around 20% commission. And the state of Hawaii does not require acting or modeling classes, so if the agent says they need it to go the other way. She also said that for the first year, as "your daughter" tries out for various things, she'll see if she likes the industry or not. If she doesn't like it, walk away. No harm, no foul. And realistically, at her age, she changes constantly, so don't waste any money on professional pictures. If she sticks with it, invest when she's 10+, when bodily changes slow down some. Just keep the agent in question up to date with cell phone pictures every few months.
It was pretty informative. We are going to sit down with the 3 different agents that she suggested, and see what they have to say. We'll read through their contracts and choose the one that fits us best. Then we'll go from there.
As of 5 years ago (when this woman retired), local print modeling amounted to $300 for 2 hours of work, then $150 for every hour over that. She said that local commercials offer $450-500 for a day of work. The "real" goal is to get into a nation wide add, like McDonalds or something. They usually pay $5k up front, but then they have to pay royalty fees every time the commercial airs. She had a guy that was on a United Airlines commercial that aired for about a year. He earned around $40,000 for it, after all of the royalty fees were paid. Pretty interesting stuff. I'll document this as we go, just in case anyone else is ever curious about it.