The time Ariana Grande invited Jayden Seyfarth, 18, to hang out in her limo. Source: Supplied
WHILE most teenagers struggle to get out of bed for school in the morning, some days Jayden Seyfarth is up at the crack of dawn, heading to the airport in case an Angelina Jolie, Ariana Grande, or another A-list celeb shows up.
When it's homework time, he's often hanging out by the back doors of hotels, hoping to catch up with, say, Harry Styles or Ed Sheeran after tracking down where they are staying.
And if there's a major celeb in town lunching at one of Sydney's more exclusive spots during class hours? No problem. His teachers understand and his mum might write him a note — he'll just take the day off.
This is the life of the Sydney schoolkid making a killing snapping celebrities as a paparazzo.
He usually approaches stars like Ed Sheeran to get a selfie before chasing them down and burning bridges. Source: Supplied
Jayden was one of the only fans to meet Harry Styles exiting his hotel, and he got some pap shots too. Source: Supplied
The Cumberland High School student describes himself as part "fangirl", part pap.
Jayden started chasing celebrities "just because", until he realised he could start making some cash.
That was about 18 months ago, and since then he's had at least 60 days off school, seen his social media following skyrocket, met just about every A-lister to grace our shores. He's also been banking thousands of dollars taking exclusive shots, commanding upwards of $1500 from a single photograph.
He's staked out hotels, waiting more than four hours in the cold to catch Tyra Banks, learnt the tricks of the trade — "finding a celebrity's hotel room is a lot easier than you'd think" — and copped abuse from some less-than-friendly stars.
"It all started when Modern Family was shooting in Sydney and just went from there," he tells news.com.au.
"I always wanted to meet celebrities. So sometimes I would go and there would even be any paps there, so I thought I might make some money."
The idea worked for the 18-year-old, who was approached by an older friend who was taking photographs as a freelancer and selling to a picture agency.
"They came to me really. I set up an account and when I was in places other photographers weren't, I could always make money from the pictures."
Yep, that's Kim Kardashian. Source: Supplied
When Jayden started making money and realised how much he enjoyed his new-found career, he realised he was going to have to let his studies take the back seat — which didn't come as a thrill to his parents.
"School's all right, I've never really been into it. I'm just there to finish it really, just to keep my parents happy," he says.
"When it comes to the money side and the fact that I'm working they're all right with that, but the days off I take, not really.
Jayden realised early on just wagging wasn't going to work, so he started begging his mum to call the school with a fake excuse so that he could stake out a celebrity's accommodation rather than sit in class.
"I'd call her up and she'd let the school know I'd have to go somewhere — a doctor appointment, family event — but when I started doing it more she'd actually let the teachers know what I was up to," he says.
"Now (the school is) all right about it. At the start they weren't too happy but then they just got over it. We had meetings and stuff so this year I promised to improve my attendance."
It's a quarter of the way through the academic year, and Jayden says he's only had about 10 days off since the beginning of the year. He's forecast an improvement on last year's 50.
It's more about meeting the celebs and boosting his profile than the money-making shots for Jayden. Source: Supplied
Once he finishes Year 12, the teen plans to travel to America to try his luck snapping celebs over there. That or become a professional soccer player. So it's high profile careers that he's after — do we think Jayden just wants to be famous?
"At the moment I just do it for the money to buy new clothes, but yeah, I guess I've kind of wanted to be famous too," he says.
Jayden had his biggest sale — his big break — when he snapped a pic of 5 Seconds of Summer singer Calum smoking a cigarette.
The teenager reckons he made about $1900 from the one shot between four different media outlets including News Corp Australia (publisher of news.com.au). While the money was nice, he says he more appreciated the boost to his profile, and how many new Twitter and Instagram followers he gained.
As well as hanging out on red carpets — like here with the cast of Dance Moms — Jayden stakes out hotels and airports. Source: Supplied
"Now the fangirls know me too and when they see me they want to get a photo with me — I'm just like, what the f***!" he says.
"They contact me for help on how they can meet them, I help them most of the time if they're hot and since I'm nice.
"I also got death threats after that photo because it made them look bad or whatever but I just found it funny — it's more publicity to be honest."
But apart from building his profile and making bank, Jayden's got another agenda — celebrity selfies.
He'll take a photo of him and Harry Styles, Kim Kardashian, Miley Cyrus or Brad Pitt, all of which he has by the way, over an exclusive shot that will make him money.
"It's for me and it's for social media — I care more about that photo than the one I can sell. It's just more publicity."
One of Jayden's favourite shots — with Rafa. Source: Supplied
Entertainment writer Andrew Bucklow followed a professional paparazzo, Karl Larsen, around for a day in LA.
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