A series of suggestive photos featuring a 10-year-old model Thylane Loubry Blondeau have sparked controversy over the sexualization of young girls, ABC News reported. For the photo spread, which appears in a recent issue of Vogue Paris, Blondeau was styled in the haute couture and mimicked the sultry pout and steely gaze popular among models more than twice her age.
In one photo, she poses in a skintight dress, laying on her stomach atop a tiger skin rug, with stilleto-clad feet kicked up behind her. The fashion industry's interest in a younger generation of consumers and models is nothing new, but Blondeau's seductive photographs ignited concern that she is part of a growing - and disturbing - trend of sexualizing girls at too young an age.
"The research clearly shows that the fashion industry affects girls and women's images of themselves and their self-esteem if they do not meet the industry 'image' that is currently in vogue," Paul Miller, an associate professor of psychology at Arizona State University, told ABC.
"Even the very young are quite conscious of media images of what is 'pretty' and desirable."Such images also raise concerns about child predators, he told the network. "Any creepy child pornographer could plead 'artistic license'", Miller said. Even at 10, Blondeau is hardly a new face, as the model reportedly got her start on the runway for Jean-Paul Gautier at age 5.
A Tumblr account dedicated to the young model - not affiliated with Vogue - features additional photographs, including one of her posing topless on a bed. The model is the daughter of a soccer player Patrick Blondeau and Veronika Loubry, a former television personality and current fashion designer.