Many Fashion Models are just teenagers far from home, in some cases earning as much in a day as their poor families back in Russia and Eastern Europe do in a month. As a result, many fear speaking out about sexual harassment, unscrupulous booking agencies, demands to alter their bodies, lack of backstage privacy and punishing stretches with little sleep.

Fashion Models not only have pretty faces and pretty well-tailored dresses. They're always overworked, underfed and underage independent contractors with nothing to say when have problem behind the scenes.

In hopes of changing things, Ziff has founded The Model Alliance, dedicated to improving the working conditions of models and persuading the industry to take better care of its young.

"Modeling is precarious freelance labor," said model Sara Ziff, who was discovered at 14 walking home from her New York City high school. "We have very little job security. It's also a winner-takes-all market. There's only one Gisele. Basically, it's a labor force of children who are working in a very grown-up business."

Backed for now by anonymous donors, the Alliance was launched Monday and has a board of directors and an advisory board drawn from the worlds of law, labor and entertainment 

Among other things, Ziff has set up a confidential system for models to report inappropriate conduct or other abuses during New York fashion week, which opened Thursday. She is also working on a Models' Bill of Rights.