Jullien Turns 21 Today!

My little boy man is 21 today, and is celebrating in Paris right now. He left on a two month trip to work/model with his agencies in Europe. He traveled to Germany and Spain already and is now in Paris and will end up in London before heading back to New York. So unfortunately I'm not able to celebrate this momentous occasion with him.

Jullien has always been my tenacious kid. He was born two weeks early and when he was not quite a year old we moved from California to Utah to be close to my family. Just as we arrived he became very sick and listless. We rushed him to the ER and it turned out he had pneumonia. It was really scary and we weren't sure if he was going to pull through; little did I know way back then...I had a little fighter on my hands (in more ways than one!) Luckily he came through it with only slight lingering lung weakness that appears whenever he gets the cold or flu (it drops straight to his lungs.)

Jullien was always a skinny, lanky kid but had a huge attitude to compensate. He would stand up to anyone who came at him or his brothers, his friends, or someone who was getting picked on. This served him well in sports. He was really talented at football, baseball, basketball, surfing and volleyballl. He had a never quit, never let anyone get you down or tell you that you can't do something attitude. He would push through any obstacle like a bulldozer. No one was going to hold him back from something he wanted or wanted to achieve.

During his Senior year he started at safety but was moved up to linebacker for Edison High School. He didn't look like your typical linebacker, but he hit like a freight train. No one could ever understand how he had so much strength. During one of Edison's practices, Jullien kept getting by one of the huge lineman and sacking the quarterback. The coaches began to yell at the kid for being unable to stop Jullien. After about the third or fourth time of getting beat, the 250+ lb kid charged Jullien after the play was over hitting him from behind and knocking him to the ground. Jullien...all 130 lbs of him went crazy on the kid, flipping him over and ended up on top of him punching him. They finally had to pull Jullien off the kid. He definitely earned the respect of the players and coaches and proved that the size of the player doesn't necessarily matter, it's what's on the inside that's important. I think that's when the coaches decided to move him from safety up to linebacker.

Jullien has applied that same perseverance to everything he does. I can honestly say that I admire his fearlessness; his ability to charge at an obstacle and conquer whatever is in front of him. I've been so blessed to have such a wonderful son who has not only a big personality but an even bigger heart!! So today on his 21st birthday...I've posted 21 pictures of my boy throughout the years. I want him to know how proud I am of him and how much I love him. Happy Birthday Jujy!! I love you and am so blessed call myself your mom.
Never stop chasing your dreams!!

 YOU"RE 21 WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

New York Fashion Week-Dazed & Confused

Jullien just left today to head back to New York for Fashion Week auditions. He's been home for almost 2 1/2 weeks (except when he left for 2 days to shoot a Jil Sanders Lookbook). I guess the last week of Aug. is model vacation time. His agent told him to NOT GET TAN! Ya good one, you try and keep a 17 year old, Orange County surfer out of the sun. He looks really good tan though...but his agent has him down as caucasian (which he is only 1/2) so he can get pretty golden in the summertime. Hopefully the Fashion Show bookers like his tan look too!

Typical Orange County Surf Day~Jullien lovin it!

He just had his first magazine come out in the U.K. It's a huge magazine over there~"Dazed & Confused". He was pretty excited, he had three of the four pages from the photo shoot. So of course I went on Ebay and got a copy of it for 18.99!YIKES! Here's the pics:

photos: Terry Tsiolis for DAZED & CONFUSED MAGAZINE
stylist: Nicola Formichetti



Agency: RED MODEL MANAGEMENT (click link)

It's funny how life can take a completely opposite turn than what you had planned. He went from a First Team All Sunset League Football Linebacker, being looked at by colleges...to a model pretty much over night! How different can you get? He likes modeling, but says that the hardest part is being away from his girlfriend of a year and a half. I will definitely be sad if they break up, she's an awesome girl, but I know it will be hard for them to stay together.

Thought I would share some pics of the "regular" Jullien.

Jullien & Chelsea

Pep Rally before rival game against Fountain Valley

Jullien #9 (green & gold)-Just before sacking Mater Dei QB MATT BARKLEY (Now the 1st True Freshman to start this year at USC)

Handling the double team

Edison's 09' Powerhouse Linebacker's (#9 Jullien Herrera, #35 Jordan Zumwalt, #26 Matt Reza)- WE BEAT MATER DEI!

Us with my tall model boy! Just a regular kid plucked out of an ordinary life, headed for the BIG TIME.

P.S. He has a Details Magazine coming out soon...stay tuned for pics.

Edison vs. Los Alamitos

Last night was Edison's BIG game...we were ranked #1 in the county, which isn't necessarily a good thing. All the previous #1 teams lost their games immediately after receiving the honor. This game was talked about A LOT...the winner will most likely be the Sunset League Champion. Granted there is still a lot of games left and anything can happen, but Los Alamitos was supposed to be our strongest competitor.

Jullien Herrera #9 (Edison-Green/Gold) has been moved from Safety to Linebacker...which he loves! He played an AMAZING game and had a sack and an interception
(SEE VIDEO HERE) make sure you continue to watch it past the interviews...they will show more highlights. Click Here to see the article in today's sports page of the Orange County Register newspaper.

Unfortunately we had too many turnovers and questionable penalties (you will see one of them in the video). Also our main receiver was out, which definitely hurt us. Our defense played great, but was on the field most of the night due to the constant turnovers and Los Alamitos was given good field position. All excuses aside, we didn't play a clean game and suffered the consequences. Clark Evans (Los Alamitos - Colorado bound quarterback) was a great player. The guy was HUGE and STRONG, he threw accurate and ran people over. He came up and complimented Jullien after the game and told him that he was an AWESOME player.

With that being said...the score was 23-19...imagine how bad we could've beat them if we played without all the turnovers and penalties...it was an uncharacteristic game for us. Los Alamitos played a clean game and were victorious. The only thing we can hope for is that Fountain Valley, Newport Harbor or Esperanza can beat them and help us at least win Co-Champions of Sunset League...but this is football...ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN!