14-year-old Vlada was taken to the hospital by ambulance on October 25. She became ill during a fashion show in Hangzhou. And on the night of October 27, the girl died.
Vlada entered the modeling business at the age of 12. A sixth-grader with a height of 178 centimeters was brought to a modeling agency by her mother. She works as the editor-in-chief of a glossy magazine published in Perm, and dreamed of her daughter making a career as a model.
When Vlada just started, she had a lot of teenage complexes: she was shy, slouched. We had to work with her a lot,” says Elvira Zaitseva, director of the Perm modeling agency.
After a year of studying at a modeling school, Vlada already participated in shows and starred for glossy covers in Perm magazines. To go abroad, you had to wait until the girl turned 14.
This spring, having received a passport, the aspiring Perm model entered into a short-term contract for the first time and flew to China.
In this country, the active age of a model is early - from 14 to 18 years old, explains Elvira Zaitseva. - There are no jobs for teenage girls in Europe yet. We discussed her career with her parents and decided to send the girl to China. They treat young models very carefully there.
Vlada communicated with her parents daily on Skype. She said that she was happy. She talked about shows and filming, about becoming the face of a transatlantic company, and excitedly talked about the amazing eastern country.
However, working as a model is not the most important thing for a 14-year-old girl; Vlada needed to study. In the spring - on her first trip - she finished seventh grade, and in the fall she went to eighth grade. While traveling, she continued her studies remotely.
On her first trip abroad, the young model lived in Beijing for three months. Taking into account the payment of the flight, taxes, accommodation, food and insurance, she even earned a little: out of the approximately three thousand dollars Vlada earned during this time, she had to pay two and a half thousand.
Vlada returned to Perm a little different: matured, brave, active,” says Elvira Zaitseva. “We thought she would throw herself into her studies, but no. All she talked about was her modeling career. At the agency, she began communicating with older girls, with those who had already worked abroad. After ninth grade, I dreamed of entering the International Academy of Modeling in Singapore. Her parents supported her in this.
Five months ago, Vlada’s younger sister was born. The family became large: an older brother, Vlada and a baby. Family expenses have increased. The eighth-grader began persuading her mother to go and work in China again. To achieve this, I really leaned heavily on English. And the adults gave up.
In mid-September she left for Shanghai, where she was to work for two months. On the eve of that fateful show on October 25, during which Vlada became ill, she took part in a 13-hour shoot for a jewelry catalog. The next day there was a show by a famous oriental designer. During the break, Vlada complained of feeling unwell. She was sent to a hotel and told to take her temperature. The thermometer showed 40 degrees.
The model was taken by ambulance to the hospital. There the girl fell into a coma, and at three o’clock in the morning on October 27 she was gone. The preliminary cause of death is meningococcal infection. This version will now be checked by Chinese forensic experts. The parents have already been informed that their daughter’s body will be delivered to them no earlier than in a month. This time will be required for the examination and for the preparation of all legal documents.
Sorry, I can’t talk right now, my daughter died in the hospital tonight - the only thing the grief-stricken woman could tell us.
Parents are now collecting documents to urgently fly to China. We tried to find out from the scout who was responsible for the girl’s safety in Shanghai, but he answered us with only one phrase, “No comment.” When we asked: “Why no comments?”, he added us to the “black list”.
Perm investigators reported that they would check the modeling agency that sent the girl to China, and the commission on juvenile affairs would find out why the schoolgirl missed classes for so long.
The tragic death of 14-year-old Vlada Dzyuba caused great resonance. A girl from the Russian city of Perm came to Shanghai to participate in a fashion show and soon died in the hospital. Read about the details of the tragedy further in the material.
Grade
While the Western press is discussing it, in the Russian-Ukrainian space they are talking about the tragic death of a minor model.
It is known that 14-year-old Vlada Dzyuba was urgently hospitalized. She was in a coma for two days and on Friday, October 27, it became known that she died in the hospital. It is too early to say definitively about the causes of the tragedy, since the investigation is ongoing, but earlier the press wrote that Vlada Dzyuba allegedly worked 13 hours in a row, exceeding the norm, and her agents did not take out the necessary medical insurance. There was also a comment from the model’s mother about the tragedy.
She calls and says: “I’m so tired, I worked for 13 hours, I want to sleep.” I was already getting sick, and then the fever started. I didn’t sleep, I kept calling her to tell her to go to the hospital.
It is known that Vlada Dzyuba started her career at the age of 12. After a year of study, the girl actively participated in shows and starred for glossy covers in Perm magazines. And I dreamed of going to work abroad. In the spring of 2017, having received a passport, the aspiring model signed her first contract and flew to China. This is what they said at the agency from which Vlada Dzyuba allegedly flew to Shanghai.
Our agency does not conduct financial activities and does not send models for work; we can only provide consulting and information support. Vlada herself was looking for options where she could go to work. China suited her because, as a rule, teenage girls work as models in this country.
How everything happened is known. On October 25, during a fashion show by famous oriental designers, the girl became ill. With a temperature of 40, she was admitted to the hospital, and two days later she died from acute meningococcal infection. According to preliminary data, the cause of Vlada’s death was multiple organ failure due to an infectious lesion of the nervous system and sepsis. Previously, they also wrote that the model suffered from meningitis, complicated by severe exhaustion. The director of the agency with which Vlada collaborated denies information about the allegedly hard slave labor of her charges.
They write that the girl worked 13 hours during Fashion Week. And it was because of this overwork that she died. But Fashion Week ended on October 18th. And the whole story with this model began only on the 24th. And she died on October 27. So there is no connection between fatigue and her death. And the agency reports are completely wrong.
At the same time, those around Vlada say that she grew up as an absolutely healthy child and did not have any chronic diseases. After the death of a Russian woman in a Shanghai clinic, the question arose about her medical insurance, which she did not have. Why a minor child flew to work abroad without medical insurance at the height of the school year is being investigated by special authorities.
The day after hospitalization, the schoolgirl fell into a coma and died. The preliminary cause of the tragedy is meningitis due to severe overwork. But the girl’s friends suspect that she might have been hiding the symptoms of the disease for some time. After all, she was in a foreign country without health insurance.
This was not the aspiring model’s first business trip abroad. A few months ago, Vika went to Hong Kong for filming. The girl spent two months there.
Vika, as long as I’ve known her, has always really wanted to be a model, and she was the right height. Probably in the fifth grade, her mother took her to a modeling agency,” says a classmate of the deceased model.
A year ago, the girl won the title of Top Model at the “Young Beauty of Perm” competition. Serious proposals and contracts appeared.
Vika came back from her first work trip to China enthusiastic, she liked everything: a different life, serious shows. But when I was in Shanghai, she wrote to me that she was very tired. “I asked for help with my homework, because I simply didn’t physically have time to do them,” the friend continues.
- Didn’t she take academic leave during these trips?
No, Vika was home schooled.
- Did she talk about her schedule in Shanghai?
No. She didn’t write to us much at all - there was no time.
- Could her condition have worsened due to diets?
No, Vika always ate a lot, she had such a good constitution that she simply did not need diets.
It was the third month of Vika’s stay in Shanghai: the girl left for China at the end of August, and was supposed to return home on November 16th. It is still unclear when exactly the schoolgirl contracted the infection. But the girl’s mother said that a few days before hospitalization, her daughter complained that she was very tired after a 13-hour working day. “She was apparently already sick. Then she developed a fever. I didn’t sleep, I kept calling my daughter, asking her to go to the hospital...”
But the girl never went to the doctor. Perhaps because no one took out health insurance for the young model. And any visits to doctors abroad cost incredible amounts of money. As a result, the girl was taken to the hospital by her curators when she was already very ill. For several days, relatives prayed for Vika’s health and collected money for her treatment. And on October 26 at three o’clock in the morning the girl passed away.
The head of a modeling agency from Perm, with which Vika collaborated, told MK that the curator of the host party should have been responsible for the girl’s stay in China.
Vika graduated from our studio, took part in a competition, after which she was selected by a visiting scout (an agent who travels to different cities and selects new faces for photo shoots - “MK”) to participate in shows in China. Negotiations about the trip, first to Hong Kong, and then to Shanghai, were conducted directly with the girl’s parents, says Elvira Zaitseva. - By the way, mom was against Vika’s second business trip. But the girl literally begged her for permission.
- Why didn’t Vicky have insurance?
It is better to ask this question to the girl’s mother and the receiving party. My opinion is that perhaps in order to save money, they wanted to go with the old insurance. And while in China, it ended.
Elvira assures: there was no 13-hour show. The girl felt unwell during filming for a jewelry catalog.
That is, she did not walk along the catwalk for several hours without a break. One image was filmed - then the girls were changed and their hair done. During breaks they have lunch and drink tea. The tragedy could not have occurred due to overwork. Yes, Vika really complained to her mother about fatigue. But perhaps by this time she was already sick and felt unwell. No one is to blame for the tragedy, it was an accident.
It should be noted that on each such trip the models are accompanied by curators. They make sure that the girls do not have problems with housing, that they are fed breakfast and lunch on time. They also monitor the health of their charges. MK managed to talk with the curator who was responsible for Vika’s stay in Shanghai.
“Everything was turned upside down, there were no 13-hour shows,” says Dmitry Smirnov. - Vika was filming for a catalogue. When she arrived at the apartment, she felt bad, she started vomiting, her temperature was below 40. The agency immediately took the girl to the hospital, she was given all the tests. But this is a very scary virus. The doctors were powerless.
Dmitry says: that day the girl was on set for a total of 10 hours.
But this is the total time spent on site. Each bow takes two minutes. And then the models change clothes and wait their turn. They are fed during breaks, and they can go away to drink tea or coffee.
- But can a teenager work more than 4 hours? - I’m surprised.
For every additional hour they are paid very well. And I repeat: of these 10 hours, the total working time is an hour and a half. The rest of the time the girls wait. For each additional hour they are paid $50. If you can get $1000 in a day, what would be your choice? Filming doesn’t happen every day, so the girls agree. And enough stories about poor models that everyone uses. Compared to conditions in Russia, girls abroad are in a great position... And Vika already had contracts before this trip, she was a pro...
On forums dedicated to the modeling business, this tragedy caused a flurry of responses. Comments are left by agents, parents of young models, and the models themselves. Girls write about penalties, about working with fever. Here are just a few comments.
“The actual practice of many Chinese agencies is to ignore any ailment of models, whether it is something serious or not. They will still put pressure on you and force you to go to work, which they simply cannot cancel. Not all agencies are like this, but many are. I myself have worked many times with colds, temperatures, and so on. My friend once, instead of being sent to the dentist with gumboil, was forced to go to the show with a swollen cheek...”
“Yes, the Chinese have a different mentality. They are hard workers and work hard. In a model, as a rule, they only see an opportunity to make money, and only some agencies value us as living people. How many times have I heard stories from friends that they fainted during filming, and they were raised, set up again and continued filming... My friend fainted from overwork and received a huge black eye, so she was forced to continue working...”
A modeling agent collaborating with Chinese companies agreed to tell MK about all the intricacies of the work of Russian girls in China on condition of anonymity.
Typically, the cost of a visa and medical insurance falls on the shoulders of the model or her parents. Insurance is not mandatory when obtaining a visa, and many girls, especially from not very wealthy families, prefer to save this $50-100, relying on chance. Experienced agents will never rely on a model's good health. They always insist that medical insurance must be taken out or “you won’t fly anywhere.” The risk of an insured event may not be high, but the consequences can be colossal. Medical services in China are not cheap. And the most common disease among models there, especially during acclimatization, is a cold. During the hot season, the air conditioning in cars is at a minimum and it’s cold, but when you go outside it’s hot. Models quickly catch cold from such temperature changes. Those who managed to take antibiotics are fine. Otherwise, complications are guaranteed. But I don’t remember that a business trip ended in such a tragedy.
- Girls complain that in China the employment contract is ignored: sick people are sent to filming, and at any time of the night...
For some agencies in China (there are fewer and fewer of them), the main goal is to make money. And what is there and how the model is - they don’t care much. There is no reason for them to cancel work and reschedule the shoot if your temperature is already approaching 38. “You have to work, you’ll get treatment later.” Therefore, again, agents with experience carefully monitor the conditions before placing their models in one agency or another. I know the agency that accepted Vika. This is a large and wealthy office with a strong team of bookers. So, without understanding it, I would not blame the company representatives.
Models write on the Internet that they are often fined. Could Vika not report feeling unwell for fear of sanctions?
Almost every contract spells out what models are prohibited from doing and what penalties they will face for violating these terms. But lest the model report feeling unwell for fear of fines, I rule it out. On the contrary, the contract stipulates that the model will not be fined if she misses a casting or work due to health reasons. The main thing is to inform your booker at the agency about this (that’s right, by the way, the booker, not the curator) so that he can take care of solving this problem...
The girl was only 14 years old. Can she even officially work as a model? Can they sign a contract with her?
Yes, according to Chinese rules, a work visa for a model can be opened if the girl is 14 years old. And such a visa would not have been issued if a contract had not been signed between Vicky’s agency, the Chinese agency acting as the receiving party, and the girl’s legal representatives (her parents). There may be different opinions as to whether a person at this age is ready to work abroad. But the realities of today are such that even children of kindergarten age fly for short photo sessions.
At the moment, Perm investigators have joined the situation. They began a pre-investigation investigation into the death of 14-year-old Vika. MK will monitor the development of the situation.
Illustration copyright Getty Images
The Russian Investigative Committee began to clarify the circumstances of the death of 14-year-old Perm resident Vlada D., who worked as a model in Shanghai. On October 25, during the next show, the girl complained of feeling unwell and was hospitalized. In the hospital she fell into a coma and died two days later.
According to preliminary data, the cause of death of the young model was the increasing failure of vital organs and systems - a pathological condition resulting from a severe infection or stress on the body.
“There is an official document - this is a death certificate from the hospital, in which the cause of death is stated: multiple organ failure due to sepsis and infectious damage to the nervous system,” the Russian Consulate General in Shanghai told RIA Novosti.
The final diagnosis, diplomats explained, will be made after the autopsy. Earlier it was reported that the girl could have died from meningitis.
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Vlada’s mother told the media that her daughter complained to her about fatigue, high temperature and working 13 hours a day. According to the contract, the girl had to work no more than four hours a day, the woman specified.
It remains unclear whether the 14-year model will have health insurance. Representatives of the Chinese agency Esee told the Russian TV channel REN that the girl did not have it, and after hospitalization, medical insurance in the amount of $800 was paid by the receiving agency.
At the same time, the Perm agency Great Model, with which Vlada D. collaborated, told Komsomolskaya Pravda that insurance had been issued. The director of Great Model did not answer calls from the BBC Russian Service.
Working as a model in China is difficult and unsafe, several fashion industry representatives told the BBC.
Veronika Sedlova, founder of the Look Models modeling agency
I'm not at all a fan of sending models to China because it's not safe there. You need to be prepared physically and mentally for China.
The climate there is not the most favorable, the food... Many models start using drugs and go to work in clubs.
If modeling doesn’t work out, and pocket money (money that is given to models once a week for pocket expenses - BBC) is very small - 70-100 dollars - there is nothing left to do but go to work in a club where you need to drink with guests, attract the public. They can easily slip something into your cocktail and you will lose consciousness.
If you send models to China, then only to trusted agencies, only when the girl is already 18 years old and has a head on her shoulders.
To travel abroad, including to China, you must have insurance. Insurance must be handled by the receiving agency and the agency that sends the model abroad (mother agent).
In any case, the receiving agency prepares all the necessary documents and ensures the health of the model. But, unfortunately, force majeure situations occur in our business. Naturally, the mother agent had to monitor the insurance situation. But there’s also the question that they didn’t notice [Vlada’s condition] right away and didn’t take action quickly.
Sofia Muntyan, model
I have not worked in Asia, but I have heard from my colleagues about the difficult working conditions in this region. I think that parents should monitor what is happening [with underage models].
I worked in Europe, with a full package of documents, insurance and excellent apartments. I also started my career when I was an adult. I think thanks to these factors, problems passed me by.
Daria Malygina, model
I have never worked in China, the only thing I can say is that I really believe that it is better not to engage in modeling before the age of 18. This is very hard, exhausting work, and everyone has different illnesses and different stamina.
It wasn’t difficult for me, but I remember times when I was hungry and ate the leftover pasta in the apartment. They always gave you money for food, it’s just that when you’re a child, you don’t know how to manage it correctly and it’s hard to live on $100 a week.
In an amicable way, I would introduce a law so that girls can start working [in the modeling business] from the age of 18. Because that’s not how children work.
And no matter how easy it may seem to everyone that it’s easy to walk along the catwalk or take a couple of photos, the girls have to spend a month running around to castings to do this. My record is 28 castings in a day! And you understand: you are running, there is no time to eat, you are being dumped everywhere, you are upset... Somewhere they are taking you, but for this you spent a whole month running somewhere and trying to believe in yourself.
Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption More than ten designers from China were presented at New York Fashion Week in the fall of 2017.Nadezhda Sinelnikova (name changed), model
Work is hard in China. Whether it’s Shanghai or another metropolis, the system is the same everywhere. Agencies not only do not care about the availability of medical insurance for foreign models, they conduct a completely illegal business, inviting girls to work on a tourist visa (I am not taking Hong Kong into account). The contract that each agency proposes to sign has no legal force. This paper will not help resolve any controversial situation - I tested it myself.
The model has no rights. There is only one right - to go there again or not. Since you have already arrived, be kind enough to work as much as necessary. There are no standards for a working day. It can last from 3-4 hours to 20 hours.
No one is obliged to feed the model during the day. Payment is for every hour of filming, and only in China those five minutes that are given for lunch are then deducted from working time. They may also deduct time for going to the toilet. Or even challenge your time if it seemed like you were working too slowly.
Object? Unfortunately, girls who have not yet achieved a certain level of work or respect in the agency do not have the right to object. Either you obediently work under the proposed conditions, or you don’t work at all. Therefore, shooting a summer clothing collection in the cold winter sea is a classic. Cold kidneys and other sores are indispensable companions of such work.
Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption The rapidly growing Chinese modeling market attracts a huge number of girls from different countriesBut work is one side of the coin. Chinese agencies do not care much about the quality of apartments. At the best modeling agency in Guangzhou, seven of us lived in an apartment with one bathroom, without a refrigerator or stove for cooking. We slept on bunk beds and bought heaters for our rooms ourselves, because there is no central heating in China, and the air temperature drops to zero in winter. Nobody cared about this.
At the same time, the agency strictly warned that if something happened, the girls should not go to the hospital on their own. After all, there will be a lot of questions for them - you never know, they will say something wrong. Therefore, in case of emergency, the agency always had “its own” doctor. The agency always billed the model for his services.
When people ask me what I think about the modeling industry in China, I always say that it is a terrible world. Not because there is envy and anger among the girls there - no. On the contrary, the girls are very much united by their common “grief.” The problem is the agency's lackadaisical attitude.
But as long as China gives young girls the opportunity to earn money, there will be an eternal line of people wanting to get there.
Illustration copyright Getty Images Image caption Work in China is often grueling, models sayNatalya Averchenko (name changed), model
I worked in China for about two years. I remember that on my first trip I filmed for several weeks without days off. And every day in a new city. It happened that filming lasted 13 hours, in a cold room. Once they shot over a hundred sets of clothes on me in a studio without heating and with a half-hour break for lunch.
Chinese customers don't notice your fatigue. And they constantly push things - they are in a hurry, because they pay by the hour. By the way, a lunch break, and sometimes just a trip to the toilet, is deducted from the payment.
In China, summer clothing collections are often shot in winter, when you have to pose for hours in the cold. I refused such filming, but there were always girls ready to work in the most difficult conditions.
The agency doesn't care how you feel. In the modeling industry, getting a job is a big deal, so no one would think of asking for a day off.
All models know that China is one of the toughest markets to work in. But it is also one of the most profitable. Therefore, more and more models from all over the world are coming there. And they will prefer inhumane working conditions in China to Paris and Milan - as long as they get paid.
On October 27, a 14-year-old model from Perm died in a Chinese hospital. Media around the world wrote about the girl’s death, considering “slave labor” of a minor in Shanghai to be the main reason for the tragic incident, but Vlada’s relatives believe that this is not the case, Komsomolskaya Pravda reports.
Two years ago, Vlada’s mother, editor-in-chief of a Perm glossy magazine, brought her daughter to a modeling agency. After just a year of studying at the agency, Vlada achieved success; she starred for the covers of Perm magazines and participated in fashion shows. The girl dreamed of going to work abroad, but to do this she had to wait until her 14th birthday. This spring, Vlada received a passport and flew to China for the first time under a contract. The girl called her parents every day and talked about how happy she was to be in this country.
- Vlada returned to Perm from Beijing a little different: matured, brave, active. We thought she would throw herself into her studies, but no. All she talked about was her modeling career. At the agency, she began communicating with older girls, with those who had already worked abroad. After ninth grade, I dreamed of entering the International Academy of Modeling in Singapore. Her parents supported her in this,” says Elvira Zaitseva, director of the modeling agency.
The model’s family has three children: an older brother, Vlada, and a 5-month-old sister. With the birth of the youngest girl, the family's expenses increased, and Vlada decided to go to China again. The girl began to prepare for the trip and took up English seriously. Her parents were against the trip, but they were still persuaded, and in mid-September Vlada flew to Shanghai.
The girl was supposed to return to Perm in two months, but on October 25, during the next filming, Vlada became ill, and the 14-year-old model was urgently hospitalized.
- There were no 13-hour shows and falls on the catwalks; not a single viewer could stand that. What is a 13 hour shoot? This is the time of preparation, when the film crew travels to the location, then unloads, the photographer shoots, and time is spent on hair and makeup. And at this time the models communicate, chat on Skype or read. And in the end, when calculating the fee, they are only counted on timing - how much they actually worked in front of the camera on the set. Yes, on October 25, Vlada, while filming in the city of Yiwu, wrote to her mother: “Mom, I want to sleep, I’m tired,” but this was more likely a relapse of the disease, and not slave labor, which many media wrote about. After this message, mom immediately dialed a scout, Vlad was released from filming to a hotel, from there he was later hospitalized with a temperature of 40 degrees,- explains Elvira Zaitseva.
In the hospital, Vlad only got worse; he needed a Russian-speaking doctor. While they were looking for a suitable specialist, irreversible processes began in the girl’s body, and on October 27, Vlada died.
Personal page on VKontakte 
Vlada’s mother could not fly to China for several days; she did not have documents. The woman urgently received a foreign passport and on Wednesday, November 1, will go to cremate her daughter. All expenses for flights and accommodation were covered by the modeling agency where Vlada worked, ECEE.
Komsomolskaya Pravda / Personal archive of the model
The general director of the ECEE agency, Ms. Zheng, commented on the tragic death of the young model to the Chinese publication Global Times:
- The death of 14-year-old Vlada had nothing to do with working on the show, since it ended a week before the tragedy. During her stay in China, the girl legally worked eight hours a day, although officially the 14-year-old model was supposed to work only three hours a week. During her two-month stay in China, Vlada had 16 different jobs. She took regular breaks while working. Most of her work was completed within eight hours. And her workload was moderate compared to other models.
Personal archive of the model 
The Global Times reported that according to Chinese labor law, representatives of cultural, sports and artistic activities have the right to hire children under 16 years of age. An 8-hour working day, 44 hours a week is provided.
The publication reported that “the preliminary cause of death was meningitis, which was complicated by severe exhaustion,” but, according to the medical report, Vlada had a complex form of sepsis, which is characterized by severe blood poisoning with damage to liver and kidney function.
