Model and Music Star Janice Dickinson On The Five Things You Need To Shine In The Music Industry
An Interview With Elana Cohen
Punctuality is key, it shows respect for yourself as well as others.
As a part of our interview series with leaders, stars, and rising stars in the music industry, we had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Janice Dickinson.
Janice Dickinson — America’s self-proclaimed first supermodel was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1955. She’s best known for conquering the covers of Vogue magazines worldwide and judging on America’s Next Top Model for four seasons. She is a fixture in the reality TV world with her Oxygen network series, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, which documents Dickinson’s efforts to staff and operate a Hollywood modeling agency. After decades in the entertainment industry, Janice is now shifting her focus towards a fresh path in the music scene. Her debut single, “I Coined It” back in 2022 packs a unique punch of dance/pop created to get on you on the dance floor. Now she is rolling into the new year strong with new music that sets the scene for a perfect strut down the runway. Janice’s newest single “Get Into It” will be released on all streaming platforms on March 31st!
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit about your “origin story”. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I grew up with 2 sisters in a middle-income home in Hollywood Florida, my mother was a nurse. I poured myself into classes, swim team, clarinet lessons, and ballet. When I was young, I was not a good student in school and I worked at a pizza parlor. Since I grew up by the beach, I was constantly surfing.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I grew up taking modeling classes at the John Roberts School of Modeling from 15–17, when I left for New York. The modeling took me from wanting to be on stage as a performer to writing little songs/jingles in a book.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
I conquered my fear of being in front of people that I had at the beginning of my modeling career. I didn’t realize it was adrenalin.!
It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Putting too much pancake makeup on my face, made me look like a clown under the lights. I learned never to do that again.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
The person that helped me the most, was a photographer named Patrice Cassanova who dedicated time to taking photos for my portfolio. I didn’t have any pictures I needed to present to the agent Wilhelmina.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Know no fear. I took that throughout the rest of my life from my 20s.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I do TikTok daily and have the time of my life doing it. The exciting part is going into the studio and recording. I love performing at gay clubs, the excitement, the costumes, and the music.
We are very interested in diversity in the entertainment industry. Can you share three reasons with our readers about why you think it’s important to have diversity represented in music, film, and television? How can that potentially affect our culture?
Having diversity represented in music, film, and television can lead to greater representation, more creativity in the culture, and create more jobs. This directly affects our culture because it promotes more empathy, understanding, and positive role models for minority groups.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why? Please share a story or example for each.
Say no to drugs and alcohol, I got drunk too many times and missed jobs.
Punctuality is key, it shows respect for yourself as well as others.
Don’t overeat and keep salt out of your food, or you’ll be bloated in the morning
Make sure you have comfortable shoes to wear on and off the runway
Make sure your makeup is always clean every time you use it.
Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Make sure you don’t work with the same photographers and kill the vibe of being current. Try and do visualization in all your artistic work. Be yourself always and not some image you think others want.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
It would be commenting on social media, instead of saying bad or negative things, find something positive or helpful.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)
That would be Michelle Obama because she has inspired so many women of all generations to work hard and reach their full potential.
How can our readers follow you online?
Check out my website OfficialJanice Dickinson.com and social media!
Instagram: janicedickinson
TikTok: officialjanicedickinson
This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
