Local teens want to be 'Made' on MTV

They want to be models, skateboarders, ice skaters or rappers.

In a word, they want to be made.

Wednesday, about 100 students at Glenbard West High School in Glen Ellyn -- and hundreds more at other area high schools this week -- auditioned for a chance to be featured on MTV's popular series "Made."

The show provides teens with professional or celebrity coaches to help reach unlikely goals. Past episodes featured a fashionista training to skateboard and a jock learning to ballroom dance.

Glenbard West senior Paul Ackermann, 17, and junior Jennifer Zipser, 16, who both auditioned to be made into models, agreed the show is about overcoming inner struggles.

"I was always kind of the ugly duckling in grade school," Zipser said. "Since then I've changed my physical appearance, but the inside hasn't really changed."

Some Glenbard students hoped the show would open doors for goals they're already working on.

Sophomore Carolyn Yin, 15, aspires to become a petite model at 5-foot-1.

And freshman skateboarder John Smid, 14, said getting chosen for the show might help earn him skateboarding sponsors.

"I had a chance before (to model) but my parents couldn't afford modeling school," Yin said. "So I lost out on a big chance."

Though the show hosts tryouts throughout the country, MTV officials said local auditions were held this week at Barrington High, Community High in West Chicago, Naperville Central High, John Hersey High in Arlington Heights and York High in Elmhurst.

Show producers are also planning to visit schools in Glenview, Chicago and downstate.

At Hersey, Assistant Principal John Novak said the MTV crew was at the school for about 2½ hours Tuesday and interviewed about 60 students for four to five minutes each.

"They weren't looking for especially confident kids who, let's say, have taken ballet their entire lives," he said. "They were looking for kids who may be lacking some self-confidence to see what they could really accomplish."

Some auditions were cut short because of overlapping goals.

Glenbard West sophomore Erin Aubrey, 15, said producers quickly rejected her goal to become a figure skater because they already were producing a similar story line.

"I'm kind of disappointed that I didn't get a chance at all," she said.

MTV producers would not say how they chose the schools or the students, or when they would make a decision on who will be cast.

Officials at Barrington High School declined to discuss their students' auditions for fear it would hurt their students' chances of getting on the show.

But Gilda Ross, District 87's student and community projects coordinator, said hopes are high at Glenbard.

"I hope they find some lucky student with a spark that interests them," she said.