by Ozlem Arpaci

As many of you know, IGIGI has been running a national model search for the last six months. And may I say that it has been an exceptionally exciting half a year. Aspiring and professional plus models of all backgrounds have shown a tremendous interest for the IGIGI national model search. Every month, we receive anywhere from 500 to 700 applications and questions about how and where to start a modeling career. It is extremely exciting to see so many plus size beauties send in their information and pictures to IGIGI.

We also get almost as many inquiries as to why they didn't win or what they can do to help win next time around. Unfortunately, many applicants forget to read the rules and send in incomplete or incorrect applications making us automatically eliminate a good chunk because they have failed to provide some information we have asked for or their pictures don't fit the requirements we have laid out. Ladies, all it takes is five minutes to read the rules and make sure we pay attention to your application because you have done your homework to send it to us in the format we want. I can't stress this point more. Read the rules please, please, please!

Next, we go through all of the approved applications and narrow it down to 10 to 15 candidates. And let me tell you, it is never an easy task to choose one winner out of that cream de la crème bundle of beauties. We take rounds of votes in house and decide on a winner in conjunction with the Model Service Agency.