Basically you have just described most models. They are basically animated dolls that pitch hair, clothing , shoes , life style and can be made up in various configurations depending on what a particular client wants.
At 13 she is young , but not that young and the teen market for fashion and lifestyle products is almost as lucrative as the adult market. I think they are just rolling her out as the next in the A list model , exposing her to a larger market before she starts covering 17 and what ever other teen fashion mags.
The organizers knew that by choosing a kid they’d be making headlines. I’d never heard of that show until this thread.
I used to get the fashion channel and zipping through it have seen catwalk models whose faces were deformed - they would never be chosen for photographs. But rail-skinny, yes sir, I’ve seen pots of still-boiling chicken stock with the bones better hidden.
According to this the judges did not know her age (though the organizers damn well did and shouldn’t have let her enter at all).
And for those who think she looks like a girl rather than a woman, um, when’s the last time you saw a fashion show? The age of the Amazon has come and gone (not that expecting women to be 5ft11, 125lbs and a D-cup is any more realistic). And the idea that swimwear and lingerie are the only ‘sexy’ things on the runway is just plain wrong.
The Kinf of Soup is right. I could only be a matter of time before abnormally tall 10-year-olds are the norm, because, you know, they’re so ‘fresh-faced.’
She wearing a bathing suit? OMG! The same thing that millions of girls across the world wear each and every Summer at the beach. Hell, the same thing millions of 5 year olds wear each and every Summer at the beach.
Like every child, her parents need to teach her the ways of the world, watch over her, and ensure she’s given the tools to succeed in the world. If she isn’t given that info, model or not she’s screwed.
At first, that struck me as a very innocent “girl plays dress-up” thing. Then I saw this blog. It looks like her mom is grooming her to be a model… I’m feeling a little queasy about the fur corset thing.
As disturbing as Sophie’s mom might be, most of what she sews is actually not bad, compared to what’s for sale out there in prostitot wear. In fact, it’s actually kind of quirky and nifty. It’s much in tune with more “conservative” (by length and coverage) european quirky couture standards. It’s just the pouty come-hither crap that gets to me. Ugh. Talk about pedo-fodder.
Still - you gotta give it to the kid, she knows how to work the camera. She’s cute, and she’s got “it”.
Let’s just hope she has brains, too, and that “it” doesn’t go away once she hits the awkward teenager phase.
I don’t get it. Is she a fashion show model as well? In an adult line? 'Cause all I see in those photos is a tremendously cute little girl modeling clothes (her mother?) made to be funky fun dress up clothes for little girls. I love that outfit, it’s a hoot! But it’s not couture or risque at all.
I have no problem with young girls modeling young girl clothes with other young girls in a young girls’ venue. Even swimsuits - 12 year old swimsuit models in the children’s swimsuit section of the Sears catalog are entirely appropriate. What I disapprove of (and, honestly, I can only work up a tongue-clicking level of RO here) is the incongruity (or “inappropriateness”) of a child working in an adult setting. I wouldn’t let my very skilled 14 year old work in a machine shop or auto mechanics as a job. Hang out there on weekends, as a visitor, sure. But the culture of the shop (colorful language, stories, assumptions about everyone’s general education and level of experience in the world) would not be an appropriate place for him to hang out with and identify with at this stage of development.
The “sexualization of children” thing only gets me so far, frankly. She’s not got a child’s body, so no, I don’t find it shocking that **VC03 **(and others) might find her sexually appealing. I’m much more concerned that she’s going to be included in a conversation on blow-job techniques or the bodycount in the Iraq war or asked to witness or participate in illegal drug use, alcohol consumption, or other adult activities that she should just not be required to face as a participant yet.
I know I tend to forget that the 16 year old intern at the office is a “kid” and sometimes forget to monitor my conversation or language around him. Once the person is “coworker” in my mind, things like age-appropriate topics of conversation go right out of my head. I can only imagine how much worse it is if the kid doesn’t look like a kid and is accepted as “coworker” in a high stress, high conflict, high drama workplace like that.
So, perhaps, with a lot of adult supervision, all those things can be avoided or minimized. Then okay, sure, let her do her thing. But I’m still worried for her (as worried as I can be for a kid I don’t know.)
These are…uh…interesting, too. I don’t really care, it’s their life, their business. The people who oughta take umbrage are the Europeans. I don’t think “Euro” clothes = techno-whore, but I could be mistaken.
Well, I think her mother has an unfortunate fondness for '80s Madonna fashion, but still, yards and yards of fabric, much more coverage than your basic T and shorts from Walmart, and nothing I’d forbid my daughter wearing. I might protest if she wore it to Grandma’s house as it’s “silly” playwear, but I’m still not seeing anything provocative or womanly there.
Seriously, is *this *the stuff people are decrying as “slutwear” for kids? Maybe that’s why I’m a little confused at those threads as well. When I think slutwear, I think tight tueb tops or a spaghetti strap top with plunging neckline and “Cherry” written in rhinestones across the breastline and short miniskirts drooped low to reveal thong underwear in the back. (Which I have occasionally seen on young teens around here, but not on 8 year olds.)
If I saw a kid dressed like that at the mall, I’d assume it was Halloween. If the kid was pouting and sticking her butt out like that, I’d think she was planning on a future career in the World’s Oldest Business.
Something similar went through my mind on seeing a picture of this girl. It reads something like, “Damn, how did they get all that makeup to stay on her face? Did she use spackle or something?” She’s wearing enough makeup that those photos sort of remind me of Jon Benet Ramsey pictures (though she’s obviously older, so it’s not quite as creepy; but still…yuck).
