When people flick through Amara's portfolio they sometimes ask when we're going to add "more variety". Different outfits, different locations, a beach maybe.
Here is the thing the casting directors already worked out: the variety is her face.
The session behind this site was one white studio wall, one ribbed tank top, one denim skirt with little embroidered stars, and a photographer with a hard flash and a sense of humour. He would call out a word and Amara would hand him the matching face. Happy. Suspicious. Shocked. Too cool for this. Every frame, same kid, completely different story.
Forty minutes, twelve keepers. His flash threw her shadow on the wall like a second tiny model, and by the end he was directing the shadow too.
A children's casting director once told me they see a thousand pretty portfolios a week, and what they're actually scanning for is range they can book against a brief. One outfit and twelve moods answers that question faster than twelve outfits and one mood ever could.
So no, no beach. Not yet. The wall is doing just fine.