Madelyn Cline sits cross-legged in an oversized chair in her Goose Creek living room casually telling her life story.

Her giggle is infectious, her smile bright and convincing. She doesn’t seem to notice the video camera filming the interview, but then again, she’s used to it.

It’s been all “lights, cameras, action” for the Goose Creek teenager since appearing on the May 2008 cover of Lowcountry Parent magazine. Soon after the issue published, she signed with a local modeling agency and spent a couple of summers in New York City taking classes and shooting various print ads and television commercials.

Now, you can see Madelyn’s image everywhere in print advertisements including Toys“R”Us, T-Mobile, Meridian Health and on national magazine and catalog covers such as Scholastic Parent & Child and American Girl.

Now 13, Madelyn has also filmed nine commercials for companies and products like SunnyD and Swanson stuffing since modeling for Lowcountry Parent.

Just starting out

The 2008 Lowcountry Parent magazine cover was shot at the Mount Pleasant Recreation Department’s pool at Park West.

“I think it was a really good first experience because it was more of a relaxed photo shoot,” Madelyn says.

It was stress-free – except for a wasp flying around the pool. The photographer and staff working the photo shoot opened doors, swatted and ducked hoping the bug would escape on its own. It finally did, and the shoot resumed. Madelyn says she is “afraid of anything that stings.”

However, she says she’s since been on even tougher sets.

“I’ve been on sets when everything is really tense, and there are very strict time schedules where they had to get, like, I don’t know how many shots in [a limited time period] and then move to the next one. It was really hard, and it was really tense, but I think it turned out good.”

Madelyn says she wasn’t sure what to think when she saw herself on the cover of Lowcountry Parent.

“It was just really weird to see yourself – and it still is. I’ll see myself on a commercial and it’s like, ‘is that me?’ It’s really odd … because you’re like, ‘Is my nose that big?’ That’s what I thought! I was like, ew!”

On to the “big time”

Madelyn’s second magazine cover was the national publication Scholastic Parent & Child in September 2008.

“She was over the moon, especially when her dressing room turned out to be the famous Tavern on the Green in Central Park. It was almost as if I had fed her a quart of sugar!” says her mom Pam Cline. 

The stylist took them on a short behind-the-scenes tour of the New York City landmark and Madelyn learned all about the infamous, troubled restaurant that ultimately closed in December 2009. Madelyn couldn’t wait to call her father and tell him where and what she was doing.

She also graced the cover of the American Girl catalog in March of 2009. The photo was taken in Savannah, Ga.

“We got to go to this really pretty house … on the water. It was really, really pretty and it was very exclusive, so I thought that was awesome.”

Madelyn and her mom took advantage of the opportunity to explore the city.

“We took a day to tour around Savannah, have lunch and window shop, which is one of our favorite things to do,” her mom says. “We discovered the Savannah College of Art and Design shop, and it is neat!”

They had no idea she’d get the cover.

“It was a real surprise,” her mom says.

Madelyn continued on to do more print advertisements and spreads. During the summer of 2009, while modeling for the brochure of the eczema medication Elidel, she was competing against several other children, but had no idea she was in a competition or what the shoot was actually about.

“She mistakenly thought the prize was a photo for her portfolio,” her mom says.

The photo published later that summer.

In the summer of 2010 the Clines headed back to New York City for more work.

Madelyn shot some advertisements for Toys“R”Us and a few other commercials.

“I guess I sound like a broken record because Maddie loves working with the Toys“R”Us crew,” her mom says. “She has really gotten to know them so much that they told her when she gets ready to intern or look for a summer job, she should come see them.”

While there, the Clines hired Nathan Yungerberg Photography to take Madelyn’s professional headshots. The photo shoot outside in New York City required several wardrobe changes; when the photographer asked Madelyn to change into a different outfit, the staff pulled out a plastic “pop-up changing room.”

“Maddie got a kick out of telling everyone that she changed clothes in the middle of a Brooklyn street!” her mom says.

Crazy on the set

Madelyn has appeared in commercials for products including SunnyD, WowWee EZ-2 Make, Swanson Stuffing and Cook or Be Cooked, a Nintendo Wii game produced by the Food Network.

The EZ-2 Make commercials were by far the most difficult so far, and the longest she’s ever been on a set.

“I had to do the close-up of the hands, where after they show the kids playing with the products and they have the hands doing the mixing – the tomato sauce and everything. It was one of those ‘very tight schedule’ kind of sets.”

One day it was extremely hot on set and the commercial lights made it even hotter.

“I was sweating but didn’t complain.”

The truth about modeling

Madelyn says modeling is fun, but it isn’t as glamorous as people tend to think. It can be difficult to be the person the model has been hired to portray, and adverse conditions on set can sometimes take the fun out of the experience.

“The agent will call after a photo shoot and say ‘The client loved it because she got the point. She knew what the client wanted, and she nailed the photo shoot,’ but sometimes it’s just been a struggle to get what the client wants.”

Her advice to other kids interested in breaking into the business is to remember that it is work.

“You’re not a diva on the set. You don’t get everything you want. 
It’s hard. Sometimes you have to sit outside in the rain and in the cold [in summer clothes] for hours. You don’t just put your hand out and someone gives you a soda. It’s not fun and games – it’s work, but when you enjoy it, that’s when it becomes fun.”

Madelyn says to be a serious actor or model people must have patience.

“It’s not easy. It’s hard, but if you love it, that’s what counts.”

Loving life

It hasn’t been all rain and cold for Madelyn Cline. From visiting exclusive locations to meeting celebrities such as Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal and Corbin Bleu, the 13-year-old homeschooler is making friends all over the nation and learning something about every city she visits.

“Traveling together and doing these shoots is so much fun, and Maddie has made so many friends,” her mom says. “It is neat for her to see kids on set that she has worked with in the past. Watching from a distance, it is interesting to see some of these kids switch into ‘professional mode.’”

In her spare time the typical teen plays on the Internet and likes to read the dictionary or the phone book.

“It’s really geeky, but I’ll sometimes go up into my room and talk to my stuffed animals because I just feel like talking. Sometimes I’ll talk my mom’s ear off, or my dog’s. I also like to watch TV.”

Looking to the future

Madelyn recently finished filming the movie “23rd Psalm Redemption,” where she plays Mia, the daughter of a reverend whose family is taken hostage by escaped prison inmates. It is still in post-production.

“We saw some raw footage of some of the scenes,” Madelyn says. “It was really, really cool to actually see myself doing a movie … I’m excited to see the whole movie.”

She also just got off the set of the TV show “Army Wives,” where she plays an extra in the upcoming fifth season.

All-in-all she loves her chosen career path and looks forward to the future.

“You get to talk. You get to do all these cool things. You get to show your personality a lot of the time.”

She enjoys both modeling and acting but says if she had to choose one she’d choose acting because she gets to talk.

“And I really like to talk.”

Want to get your child on the cover of Lowcountry Parent magazine? Click HERE to learn how!