A Model Child

Monica Winters is only eleven, but she dresses like a teenager and is dieting for the Young Miss Odyssey Modeling Contest - her mother's idea, not hers. Melanie Jacobs wishes her own parents would let her enter too, until a day of splashing at the swimming hole shows her the real Monica underneath the perfect hair. Meanwhile Whit wants nothing to do with a contest that judges girls by their looks, and his newspaper editorial sends sponsor Bart Rathbone into a fury. Then, the night before the contest, Monica disappears... and Melanie finds her sobbing in the woods, where she collapses from starving herself to fit into a dress. After a trip to the hospital and some honest counseling, Monica and her mom finally learn to have fun together - and Monica is back at the pond, splashing with friends her own age.

Found on At Home and Abroad Album 12 · 12 episodes

The run See every episode

0157 Last in a Long Line A chance shortcut through a cemetery leads Eugene to a gravestone bearing his own family name - and a mystery that could rewrite everything he believes about being the last of the Meltsners.

0158 A Day in the Life When a Hollywood producer buys Whit's affectionate short story about everyday life in Odyssey, the whole town lines up for its shot at movie stardom.

0159 The Homecoming A young man with a troubled past returns to Odyssey seeking something the town may not be ready to give.

0160 A Rathbone of Contention When Bart Rathbone fast-tracks the grand opening of Odyssey's new electronics store, his habit of cutting corners - and borrowing other people's talent for free - puts the whole venture on shaky ground.

0161 Isaac the True Friend Feeling friendless, Isaac takes an Imagination Station trip into the story of David and Jonathan and discovers what true friendship really costs.

0162 Peacemaker When two friends' quarrel threatens a church project to help the homeless, Connie learns that making peace takes more than smoothing things over.

0163 A Model Child An eleven-year-old girl's envy of a glamorous young model fades as she discovers the painful cost of growing up too fast.

0164 Sixties-Something When a sixties nostalgia craze sweeps Odyssey, Connie goes searching for the decade's most inspiring writer - and finds far more than she bargained for.

1 of 2 0165 Bernard and Esther With the Imagination Station broken, Bernard proves a well-told story beats any machine by spinning the biblical tale of a brave young queen whose people's fate rests in her hands.

2 of 2 0166 Bernard and Esther At Whit's End, Bernard finishes his cliffhanger tale of Queen Esther, who must risk her life before the king to save her people from the scheming Haman.

0167 Dobson Comes to Town A bewildered stranger walks into Whit's End with no idea how he got there - and he turns out to be someone the whole town of Odyssey knows by name.

0168 The Curse A mysterious medicine man walks into Whit's End and pronounces an ancient curse on the building's owner - and one by one, the impossible signs start coming true.

0169 Hold Up! When a nervous stranger pulls a gun at closing time, Whit's End becomes the stage for a battle of wits - and a debate about whether people are really good at heart.

Featured characters

Minor characters & crew 5 more roles

5 supporting roles

Traci Needlemeyer Brooke Bellessi Dr. Evanston Will Ryan Dr. Lawrence Bob Luttrell Kay Winters Barbara Hallis Monica Winters Danielle Bye

Made by

Chris Anthony Host Paul McCusker Writer Phil Lollar Director · Producer Dave Arnold Sound Designer · Producer Chuck Bolte Executive Producer

The story

Read the full synopsis 3 min

On a hot summer day at Whit's End, Melanie Jacobs and Traci Needlemeyer finish a soda-slurping contest just in time to spot Monica Winters through the window. Melanie can hardly stop staring. Monica is only eleven, but she dresses so stylishly that John Whittaker guesses she must be fifteen or sixteen. When Monica steps inside to wait for her mother, she turns down anything to drink - she is on a diet, her mom's idea, because of the Young Miss Odyssey Modeling Contest. Bart Rathbone pops up with flyers for the contest, which his Electric Palace is sponsoring to drum up business, promising the winner a portfolio of professional photos. Whit wants no part of it. A contest like that, he says, treats a person's looks as if they matter more than anything else.

Melanie begs her parents to let her enter, but Dale and Ann Jacobs say no. Growing up will come soon enough, they tell her - they want her to enjoy being a young girl while she can. Melanie does not really understand, and she grumbles that Monica's parents let her do everything.

Then, on a walk to their favorite swimming hole, Melanie and Traci hear what sounds like crying in the woods and stumble upon Monica. She claims she was just walking, and they talk her into coming along to swim in her clothes. Monica has the best time she can remember - until her mother sees her come home soaked, with her carefully styled hair ruined. Mrs. Winters sends Melanie and Traci away and scolds Monica for playing with a couple of giggling little girls when she is supposed to be more mature than that.

Meanwhile, Dale asks Whit to write a guest editorial for the Odyssey Times about the problems with contests that spotlight looks. Bart storms in waving the evening edition, hollering about character assassination, and vows to pull his massive advertising campaign from the paper. After he leaves, Dale admits the campaign was two lines in the classified ads to sell his son's minibike.

The day before the contest, Monica confesses to Melanie that she never wanted to enter at all. She is still trying to lose weight to fit the outfit her mother bought, insisting that people like you more if you are thin. Melanie tells her the truth: she used to think Monica was cool because of how she looked, but after the day at the pond, she likes Monica just for being Monica.

That evening Mrs. Winters comes to the Jacobs' door - Monica has disappeared. Melanie has a good idea where she went, and she and her mother find Monica crying in the woods. The dress did not fit, Monica sobs; she did not lose enough weight, and now everything is ruined. As Ann gently coaxes her home, Monica collapses. At the hospital, Dr. Evanston explains that Monica has been starving herself and is fatigued and undernourished, and Dr. Lawrence, the hospital counselor, asks Monica and her mother to spend some time in counseling with him. Ann offers Mrs. Winters a gentle thought: sometimes the ideas that get into children's heads come from their parents, who talk to them like adults while they are still listening like kids.

Some time later, the girls are splashing at the swimming hole again - Monica included. The counseling has made things better at home. Her mom does not push her so hard anymore, the two of them are having fun together, and Monica has gained back enough weight to be just right for her size and age. All the talk makes her hungry, so she serves her friends something cold and refreshing - a big splash of pond water.