Ryder Frost is definitely the most intriguing person I’ve interviewed. A picture tells a thousand words and as soon as I first saw her picture, everything I assumed about her turned out to be what she is like in real life. She really translates emotion in her shots in a mixture of subtle and in your face ways. It’s hard to look away from her picture because she really draws you in. She’s a 19 year old model from Texas who also draws in her spare time and has a very interesting story to tell. From the age of 15 she has had to look after herself and that is evidenced in her self awareness and maturity at such a young age. She already wants to be a voice for young girls who are trying to find theirs. I’ll let her tell you more. This girl has such a great career ahead of her and TBUR is honoured to have her here today.

Hello Ryder, welcome to TBUR. Please introduce yourself to my lovely readers.

Thank you, really, the pleasure is mine. My name is Ryder, or what I go by rather, and yes I am 19 years old. Born and raised in northern Texas, I’ve been here most of my life. I see myself as an artist, musician, model and dancer as well as a professional recreational-life-liver. I am the oldest, and funniest, of 4 to my beautiful mother. I also have a child that takes up a lot of my time as well.. like a lot of my time. Her name is Ruca and she is almost 9 months old and still cannot go potty outside, leave my shoes alone, or fetch. We have sit, down, stay and shake down pretty well.

Thank you very much Ryder. How did the modelling start?

I actually just started to market myself on networking sites and social media. Luckily I had a friend that was into photography. Collin Kelly did my very first set which is still one of my favorites to this day. After that, the door was wide open and it was all about how much time and effort I put into working my way up.

At the end of the day, to me art is art but business and proper conduction of such is necessary, something that only comes with experience and time in the industry.

What made you want to model?

My family had always asked if it was something I would be interested in. I was even in an orange juice commercial way back in pre-k before I even knew what film and photography was. I guess the reason I really started modeling was the vast support that I had from my friends, social media followers, along with my mother and grandmother.

It’s incredible how much emotion comes through in your shots. Is that something you have been trained to do or is that natural?

It is natural! The facial expressions are all raw and I have never had a coach or trainer per say.

Great work! I think your work is special. You’d mentioned in one of our conversations about wanting to inspire younger girls, where does that desire come from?

In the future, and while I can now, I would love to teach people younger than myself that it is okay to be yourself and that there is so much the world can offer but only after you accept yourself. I have the desire to do that because not only do I think as any human being we should all be motivated and pull for a better future, but because growing up in such a stigmatized world I’ve found that the things I’ve accomplished after un-learning some not-so-great qualities and ways of thinking from my surroundings, that life has really opened many more doors and made room for so much more happiness than I could have ever imagined if I was still trapped in a self-conscious bubble.

That’s really nice and makes you such a great role model and mummy. Until you mentioned it I’d have had no idea you had a child, how did you get your figure back?

Oh no! Haha I’m not ready to have any children at all. Visiting my younger siblings is enough for me. I have a four legged baby-dog and that’s it.

We laugh at a lot of the comments, and a lot of them even become inside jokes for a while.

Haha I guess it now makes sense why her not being able to go potty outside was mentioned. I thought you had a 9 month old daughter with a phobia of public toilets. You model with your boyfriend and have done shoots together, what’s that like?

Very interesting! He was really excited to shoot with me and I think when we finally started he realized it was a lot harder than I made it look. There’s a lot of “ok-still, hold it, look up, face the light – hold” that I don’t think he was ready for haha. We’ve shot a handful of times though and each shoot is so much fun and each photographer seems to enjoy it too. I think it’s very interesting to get to shoot with my boyfriend since, comparatively, many models don’t get that opportunity. There will be a lot more shoots with the two of us to come 🙂

Cool, we’ll keep an eye out for it. What have found to be the most challenging thing about the industry?

Just one thing? There are very many barriers (new and old) that I come across often, but I guess the most common one for me would be the all-time-tale between photographers and models… money. Some models do work with very select photographers for free, and with good sense! By no means do I expect every shoot to be paid for, but it is hard deciphering so on a daily basis. By no means do models mean to put themselves on pedestals and charge for every click of the camera, but there is a reason for paid assignments vs unpaid. I’d like to mention that even if a model requires payment for a certain shoot she doesn’t value a photographer’s work less, maybe that work wasn’t the direction the models wanted to go in, or she has a certain level of experience in that area. At the end of the day, to me art is art but business and proper conduction of such is necessary, something that only comes with experience and time in the industry.

Very tricky waters to navigate. You have a lot of positive (and sleazy) comments from guys on your pictures on social media. What kind of impact does that have on your relationship?

You’re right, I have a lot of positive supporters but I also have a lot of, I don’t know “over passionate” or just disrespectful in general even. That being said it doesn’t affect my relationship in any negative way that people would more than likely expect it to. We laugh at a lot of the comments, and a lot of them even become inside jokes for a while.

It is natural! The facial expressions are all raw and I have never had a coach or trainer per say.

Great, earlier you spoke about things that made you feel insecure when younger. If you could speak to Ryder at that stage of her life, what would you say?

I would tell myself that the effort you put in is what you will get back. Life has nothing to do with luck, or who’s parents had more or etc., it is simply what you allow yourself to achieve. I know this now but can only imagine if I had fully grasped that 4 or 5 years ago.

What are the next steps you’d like to take in your career and what’s the long term goal?

The next career steps I would like to take would include art and music. I have a very solid passion for singing since before I can remember, and an art student for several years. I’d like to find a way to collaborate with people like myself on a level outside of photography.

Cool, finally what was the reason you chose Ryder as a stage name?

Ryder was a name I felt represented me and my character.

Thank you Ryder and thanks for popping into TBUR, best of luck with your future projects.

My pleasure, thanks for having me and a big Texas wave to you and your readers.

Life has nothing to do with luck, or who’s parents had more or etc., it is simply what you allow yourself to achieve.

Ryder can be found posing, working on her art or music on Facebook or Instagram