In someone else's skin

Only when I go home at 12:00 to eat a sandwich at home do I understand that the gentlemen came for me. Or rather, that they had 'discovered' me by chance during their search.

The duo appear to be working for an advertising agency and, for a photo shoot, are looking for a girl aged around 10 who resembles an English girl featured in a pancake advert.

The girl in question has dark hair tied in two pigtails; I appear to be her double.

After they speak to the teacher and she gives them our phone number, the gentlemen immediately call my mother and go to visit her.

When I get home at lunchtime, the men have already left and my mother explains to me what they want from me. The idea is that I will have photos taken of myself, which will then be displayed in poster form in all Dutch supermarkets.

What!

'We have to go around town looking for a dark blue blouse with white dots, the exact same blouse the girl in the commercial is also wearing,' says mum. 'Everything is paid for and we get to eat out while shopping at the company's expense. Of course, you also get paid for the photos they take of you'.

When I return to school at 13:15, elated, and tell teacher that I can advertise pancakes, her reaction is anything but enthusiastic.

"Can't they just enjoy doing that themselves?" she replies bluntly.

'I look like an English girl and get paid for it teacher.'

'It's up to you but I don't like it,' she says with a sour face. 'You can write so beautifully and now you have to pretend to be someone else.'

I decide not to say anything more about it and meekly walk to my spot at the back of the classroom.

I know that teacher likes my writing. Whenever the other children are allowed to read or draw freely after work, teacher asks me to write an essay. She even gave me the only one in the class a special notebook for it.

Actually, I would rather draw too, but teacher is so happy with my stories that I don't want to disappoint her. I compensate by illustrating my writings with full-page drawings which teacher happily accepts.

That Saturday I go to Zaandam with my parents on a blue blouse with white polka dot hunt. After walking in and out of many shops, we finally get lucky! We find a blouse that fits the description and then go out for dinner.

A few weeks later, I'm sitting in the studio behind a stack of pancakes that smells delicious but I don't actually get to eat them.

'To make them look extra delicious, they are full of dyes,' the stylist reveals.

After first taking a few pilot photos, the photos for the posters are finally shot and it is waiting for the campaign to be launched.

Unfortunately, not long after that, the advert with the English girl is taken off the tube which means that my posters are also no longer usable and the whole campaign is cancelled; you would almost think that Miss is behind it.

…

Years later, I am approached by a BN-er who is looking for someone to write a column on his behalf. He is too busy doing other things but does not want to let this assignment pass him by either.

After a more than three-hour conversation during which I familiarise myself with his language, views and sense of humour, he decides that I will be his ghostwriter should be.

Apparently, ghostwriters are sought after in the media because after this public figure's assignment, several requests soon trickled into my mailbox.

Web texts, mailings, columns, blogs or PR texts, I regularly put myself in someone else's shoes. I call it 'acting on paper'. It's always a new challenge and great fun to do.

When my mother meets the now 89-year-old teacher in the village, the first thing she asks is: 'Is Nathalie still into writing?'

My mother nods.

'Certainly, she has made it her business.'

Teacher nods proudly.

'I knew it...'

The fact that I still regularly pretend to be someone else in the process has not been mentioned by my mother....