Little Girl Lost- French Vogue criticized for risque photos of 10-Year-Old Modeling Sensation

Controversy is not new to the fashion world, but the scandal involving French model Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau bridges the gap between fashion and family, offending members of both worlds equally. Thylane Blondeau is a sensation in the world of international high fashion, appearing on the runway for Jean-Paul Gaultier and in a recent issue of French Vogue guest-edited by Tom Ford of Gucci. She has all the elements of a successful high fashion model that are attractive in the world of couture: pouty lips, a waifish figure, long blonde hair, and bright blue eyes. The major difference between Blondeau and her counterparts on the runway: she is ten years old.

Blondeau is not new to the world of fashion: she walked the runway for Gaultier at the age of only four and has been photographed by renowned fashion photographers. While some of her shoots have been age-appropriate, it is the recent images appearing in Ford's issue of French Vogue that have gained the ire of viewers. Though young actresses like Hailee Steinfeld and Elle Fanning have been photographed for major fashion houses, ten years of age is unprecentedly youthful. Some have compared the images to child pornography and are alarmed that the model in the photographs has been shot in clothing and positions that are far beyond her ten years.

In the controversial spread, Thylane Blondeau is pictured in a variety of positions: she lounges on a tiger rug with a leopard-print background behind her, her hair teased high and her feet (shod in leopard, stiletto heels) kicked high. In another shot, she gazes into the camera (an uncomfortable look for the viewer), lipsticked lips in a pout, holding in each arm a bunny. Yet another shows her staring at her own image in a mirror, touching a manicured fingernail to her plum-hued lips. Each of the images shows the young model looking far older than her ten years, more like a doe-eyed, teenage model than a little girl. This is clearly not Blondeau's first shoot and she looks like a seasoned pro before the camera's lens. Even more alarming are earlier images of the model, appearing topless with a Native American style headdress atop her head. It is an "implied nude" that covers much of top half, but certainly leads the viewer to consider her in a sexualized manner.

More surprising, given the nature of her photographs, is that the young model's parents are an involved part of her modeling career. Her mother is French TV presenter and clothing designer Veronika Loubry and her father is soccer player Patrick Blondeau. Both have been supportive of their daughter's career (after all, she was only four at the start of it!) and Loubry has responded publicly to the media criticism of her daughter's photos. When asked, she stated,

"In these pictures my daughter is not nude, so let’s not exaggerate here! People who aren’t seeing these pictures in good faith, too bad for them! I’m really above all that.”

When the public uproar began in America over Blondeau's photos, Loubry shut down her daughter's Facebook account, claiming that she hoped to keep her daughter in the dark about all of the fuss.

While the images in French Vogue are not inappropriate to a fashion magazine, the subject at the center of the photos is. If the photos were taken with a consenting model of age, they would be no big deal- they might even be considered borderline tame when compared with some of the edgy fashion photography seen in magazines today. However, the exploitation of a 10 year old girl in the spread is cause for alarm. While Loubry may not think that the photos are excessively sexual, some on the internet have already viewed them in such a light. And, shockingly, the French Vogue photos are not the most sensualized photos in her portfolio: another features the young model lying on a bed, her hair tousled, and her (seemingly bare) legs sprawled out behind her. Another shows her with pouting lips, her finger slung on the belt loop of her low-slung jeans, and her black top drooping off her shoulder.

All of the images beg the question, wasn't there an adult model available to pose for these shots? After all, the clothing Thylane models is adult clothing, in adult fashion publications, so what purpose does a ten your old model serve, other than shock value? In addition to presenting a "Lolita-esque" image that appeals to potential pedophiles and legitimizes them in a way, the images also present an unrealistic, unhealthy image to young girls who might see them. Eating disorders are already rampant among teenage girls, so seeing a prepubescent child celebrated as a fashion icon (she might weigh 50 pounds, at most) is not only unhealthy, but also unethical for young women. There is no healthy way for a teenage girl to obtain the child's body type Blondeau shows: she is, after all, a child, without breasts and any curves whatsoever.

While fashion magazines often feature photographers who are also artists, Blondeau's images (though artistic) are akin to child exploitation in that they expose the child in an suggestive manner that the child cannot comprehend at such a young age. As a parent of a little girl myself and as a woman who has purchased and appreciated fashion magazines since my teenage years, I too am alarmed by Blondeau's photos. While she is a beautiful child who resembles Brigitte Bardot in more than a few ways, Thylane is still a child who should be modeling children's clothing in a manner more appropriate to a ten year old girl. She will be, in seven or eight years, a beautiful young woman. For now, she should be permitted to be what she is, a beautiful child.