The Entrepreneur

An innovator and internet pioneer, Hilary launched her first two award-winning and commercially successful sites (HILARY Magazine and New Faces) in 1995, when she was just 15 years old.

New Faces® (www.newfaces.com) was the first online portfolio site (of any kind) and is still at the top of its game as the premier model & talent site. New Faces is used by top casting agents and industry pros and is the most respected in its sector.

HILARY Magazine (www.hilary.com) was the first online women's magazine. In 1995, when Hilary was just 15, she set out to make a magazine that would be a positive influence in young women's lives. The goal: fashion, fun and female empowerment!

Motivation
My mother is an artist and my father is a well-known author (www.waderowland.com) and both were interested in technology. Consequently, in 1994 I got hooked up to the Internet. At the time I read a lot of fashion magazines and was interested in the fashion & entertainment world. My attitude was "Hey, if other people can make Web sites then so can I!" I was lucky enough to have interests that lent themselves well to the medium of the Internet, and fortunately I was able to recognize that...

Launching New Faces®
In the winter of 1994 I began planning, designing and developing New Faces. By the time my summer holidays at age 15 rolled around, I had completed New Faces to the point where it could officially launch. It was the first talent portfolio database (of any kind) on the Internet.

The Goal: It would save models and actors money and at the same time help them get worldwide casting exposure 24hrs a day. To this day it is still the best known and most visited premium model & talent site. New Faces became successful very quickly, likely due to its popular subject matter, and has changed and expanded a great deal since its inception. It is frequented by the biggest names in the entertainment industry, with a current growth rate of 32% over three months.

Learning
I didn't take any classes for Web design. In fact, when I started in 1994 there weren't any! No one I knew had any idea what the Internet was, let alone what an email address is. I pretty much learned on the go. HTML was much simpler back then and got more and more complex as the years passed. It was easier to learn progressively rather than jumping in later and having to get up to speed all at once.

Launching HILARY
In late 1994 I began writing articles and posting them on a free webpage, with the intention of someday having a real print magazine. In 1995 I realized that the web would play a big part in the future of publishing, and I launched my articles in the form of a women's magazine. It was the first online women's magazine: HILARY Magazine (www.hilary.com).
I was sick of superficial print magazines that were crammed with advertorials and articles that make women feel like they need to change. One of the goals of HILARY magazine is to publish articles (on body image, the media, etc.) that are not only interesting, but that also benefit the reader in some way.
Nowadays I have staff writers, interns, and dozens of contributing writers helping to keep the content fresh. I'm very proud of the magazine because of what it stands for, and the fact that it was the first and there's still nothing out there quite like it.

More About My Beginnings

Modeling vs. Business
I have and continue to model with top agencies. Currently represented by Elite, I started my career with FORD Models in 1994, when I was 15. During my time with FORD I did magazine covers and editorials, national commercials, music videos, etc. and I got to travel internationally, which was an important growth experience for me as a teenager. So far I have traveled to Europe (London, Paris, Italy, Germany, Austria), all over the USA and Canada, Japan and Taiwan, Central America and the Caribbean. I stopped modeling from age 18 to 25 to work on my businesses full time because my passions lie in the arts and business.

Working on my web businesses fulfills my desire to be in an artistic field where I am able to create something meaningful. I am currently represented by Elite Model Mgmt. and do assignments periodically when something pops up that seems interesting to me. I have also built up a rapport with several other top agents, all of whom frequently browse NewFaces.com looking for new talent. This network of first-hand modeling contacts definitely gives NewFaces.com and edge over the competition, most of which are run by men with no modeling experience.

The eBooks
Through New Faces, I got so many emails from aspiring models who had been scammed that I started writing articles giving modeling advice. I felt that it was my moral obligation to help these people if I could. It ended up that I had too much information to easily read through in web-site format, so I turned them into downloadable ebooks, which I sell on New Faces for $34.95. The ebooks are a compendium of all the things I learned during my time modeling, focused on helping aspiring models get a head-start in modeling while avoiding scams and rip-offs.