Ava Monroe Foy is an aspiring actress who happens to fall into the world of modeling. At just 14 years old, the Hammonton resident is signed under State Management in New York under their kids division since April 2022 and has been featured on a Five Below catalog Ava is having fun with her modeling career as she’s been getting to meet a bunch of new people.
Her mother, Jacqui Foy, and her father, Wil Harvey, do admit that it’s been a lot of work on both of their ends due to the last minute nature of Ava’s modeling career. There’s times where they’ll get a phone call that they have to be in New York by 12 p.m., in which they need to figure out who can watch Ava’s five-year old brother, Luke as Wil provides the transportation, as he’s the family’s “Mr. Taxi” as Jacqui Foy calls him.
“Sometimes, we make it into a family trip, it’s usually just the three of us. It’s not glamorous, it’s a lot of work on my end more than it is hers because she’s younger but for me, it’s a lot of ‘okay, it’s very last minute, I have to check everyone’s schedules, can we stop, can we maneuver, can we figure this out?’,” Jacqui Foy said.
The process when it comes to making it to the auditions is that it starts off with casting, then it goes to option and then confirmed. The way that the option process works is that Ava and ten other girls are liked by the casting directors and if Ava is on option, she can’t accept any other jobs until she is either confirmed or denied. They are not told whether they’ve been denied, only when they’re on option or confirmed, according to Jacqui Foy.
“She’s an option for Nike Pro right now so if anyone else reaches out, I cannot accept it until this job for Nike Pro is either confirmed or over. In her contract, these are the rules that you have to follow. The Nike Pro is up so they start shooting Feb. 2, so if we don’t hear anything back by Feb. 1, she can take another option or she can confirm another job but we can’t do anything from now until then,” Jacqui Foy said.
Ava has always wanted to be a model ever since she was little and sparked the idea to her mother. With her aspirations for being an actress, she did some background work as when she was on Dispatches from Elsewhere on AMC with Jason Segal and did some other background work with Heery Loftus Casting in Philadelphia. Both Ava and Jacqui Foy were on “Servant” on Apple TV.
“She really wants to get into [acting] and then modeling kind of fell into our laps, where it was like ‘okay, they kind of go hand in hand. If you can be seen in one, you’re going to be seen through the other.’ So we just sent a picture of her that my sister-in-law’s mom took pictures of as she does photography and she did group pictures of the kids and one of the pictures was really good so I was like ‘let me see.’ I sent it and within 24 hours, they were like ‘okay, we want to meet her in New York,’” Jacqui Foy said.
The casting was very last minute as Ava called her father to take her to New York and Jacqui Foy was at work at the time. Jacqui got an email on Wednesday and was told she had to be in New York on Friday, which forced them to drop everything. While it can be tough, she pointed out that whatever she can to make Ava’s dreams come true, she will drop everything to make sure Ava gets to live it.
“If she wants to be a doctor, I will do everything in my power to make her a doctor. If you want to be an actress, let’s do it. The hope is that she gets spotted or she has fun, she’s having fun doing it and the minute it starts to hinder her and she doesn’t like it anymore, then we’ll stop but for right now, she still likes it so we’ll do it. The goal is she wants to be an actress, she wants to make some money while she’s pursuing it, why not?” Jacqui Foy said.
When it comes to being seen by so many people, Ava admits that it’s a bit nerve-wracking but at the same time, it’s been fun.
“It kind of gets scary, especially when we were doing the photoshoot, I was really scared because it was my first time and I had no clue what I was doing and I was nervous that I was going to mess up or something. But recently, I started to have some fun with it and just whatever happens happens,” Ava said.
For those that want to pursue a career in either modeling or acting, Ava encourages children her age to not pick themselves apart because there’s going to be so many different people that look different from you.
“There’s going to be a lot of people that look so different than you and that doesn’t make you any less or better so don’t pick yourself apart, stay positive and try to make the best out of everything,” Ava said.
Jacqui Foy advises parents to be patient and to make it fun for their children as that should be a top priority.
“It’s fun for her, sometimes it’s consuming but you have to have fun with it. Don’t take yourself that serious, I’m not her manager, she has an agency. I’m just her mom, I’m there to protect her and guide her and as long as she’s having fun, we’re good. I don’t ever want to be that stage parent, you don’t ever want to be that parent so just have fun with it, enjoy it, it’s stressful but it’s fun, especially when those photos are live and you bring your kid to Five Below and they see themselves, it’s exciting,” she said.