Alongside the dressing rooms there is always a lot of tension. The models are absent mannequins, their gaze lost in their phones, while they are rouged by an army of hairdressers and make-up artists. They are very thin; they are said to feed on handkerchiefs and cotton balls soaked in fruit juice to trick the body into pretending to be full. They are very young, they all live in São Paulo but many come from southern Brazil, where the majority of the population is of European descent. Their great-grandfather probably emigrated from Germany, which explains the blond hair, ice-cold eyes and very white complexion. A common dream: to become like Gisele Bündchen, a Brazilian top model with clear German origins, still today one of the most famous models in the world and by far the highest paid. Perhaps it is a little strange that such a Central European beauty represented a Latin country for years, yet in Brazil which is based on mixing, the "ethnic ingredients" are still in various well-separated areas. Only with the introduction of quotas for models of indigenous or black origin in 2009 did not only fair-skinned models parade on the catwalks of the top Brazilian fashion event today. Finished hairstyle and makeup, off to put on clothes. Slowly the tension begins to rise and the mannequins come to life. Now they're standing in line in the dark, waiting to get out. The queue is an almost mystical moment, white faces appear and disappear in the darkness illuminated by a flashlight for the finishing touches. There are those who joke to ease the tension, those who offer themselves and pose in front of the flashes, those who are simply concentrated waiting for their turn to come. Waiting to be immortalized, admired, judged. The walk will have to be determined, the intense gaze directed at the wall of photographers. But maybe it's not enough, it's not enough not to make mistakes and simply be beautiful. Something extra is needed in that lap of the catwalk. In that fast but interminable walk, everything is at stake, the possibility of being noticed by someone important and becoming the new top model in the campaign of a major brand, or of continuing to walk the catwalk, perhaps dreaming of Paris or Milan, London or New York, the cities where fashion gets serious. On that platform you walk lightly but the stakes are heavy; everything is won and everything is lost, because it is all too easy to be set aside for a new, fresher, more particular, younger face. Younger than 16 years.