"In Paris and Milan isn't it fascinating that we get paid during the shows?" Rocha asks the audience. At the New York shows, payment for runway modeling often comes in the form of free clothing instead of actual money. "If the girls who start off are like, it's not okay if we get paid in a jacket that's a sample and ripped in the back — think about it and say, if I say yes then the girl after me will say yes," she explained. "I'm in my 16th season here in New York. Shouldn't I get paid? If you say no that means the next girl will probably say no."

It seems clear at this event that a lot of these girls need an advocate. One girl approaches Ziff in tears after the talk because of a problem with her agency. Ziff also tells the crowd about a top model who came to the Model Alliance because her agency was keeping $50,000 from her — which is illegal — and she didn't know how to handle it.

After the event, she says she was approached by several girls currently on the New York Fashion Week casting circuit who are 14 or 15 years old. "There was one girl who was from Lithuania, and she approached me after the talk and said, I'm 15, should I have a chaperone with me? And I said are you here by yourself? And she said yeah, and I said where are your parents? And and she said at home. And I said is your agency providing a chaperone? And she said no, and I don't know if someone like that is the exception," Ziff says. "I don't think anyone would disagree that really young models generally are not willing or able to stand up for themselves or ask to be paid for their work or set limits on the kind of pictures they want to take and whether they want to appear nude or not. I think models who are more established tend to be older, and once they have some show seasons under their belt and they've been the face of some campaigns, they command more money and they are not going to stay at a fitting til 3 o'clock in the morning, and they're going to want to be paid and things like that." But no one can force the industry to take these things a lot more seriously. And many attempts to get them to start lead to only small gains.

Models aren't unionized the way Hollywood actors are, so it's tough for them to work together to affect change in the industry, even if it's for stuff as basic as commanding an actual paycheck for their work. The Model Alliance, by fighting for the things unions regulate, like decent work hours, pay, and working conditions, is helping with that problem. But they're going up against longstanding traditions in an industry that has a culture of tiptoeing around the delicate feelings of powerful people who could be offended by their demands. And this season at New York Fashion Week, while things show signs of improving for models, plenty of young girls will find themselves working long, late hours without proper meal and rest breaks or chaperones, with little or no money to show for it.

At a Model Alliance panel discussion following a screening of Girl Model this past spring, the question was raised of why a top label like Marc Jacobs doesn't pay its runway models for walking in its shows. "The audience was mostly agents and models and everyone clapped," Ziff recalls. "I understand a brand new designer asking favors. [Marc]'s at the helm of a big global brand."

The team at Marc Jacobs may have heard about this discussion. A rumor is now going around that the label will pay its models in real money for the first time ever this season. (The brand did not respond to BuzzFeed Shift's request for comment.) But one model who did not want to be named told me Marc Jacobs "says they're going to pay every season and never do."