Many news outlets and blogs (and their commenters) are outraged–calling it “creepy” and “exploitation” and blaming everyone from the magazine to the fashion industry as a whole to Thylane’s parents. Good Morning America even aired a piece yesterday about Thylane and the sexualization of young girls, bringing up, yet again, teen campaign stars Elle Fanning (13) and Hailee Steinfeld (14).
Thylane’s mother, French TV host and fashion designer Veronika Loubry, who has herself been criticized for allowing her daughter to be photographed in this way, has responded to her detractors both in the French press and on Facebook.
She told Jean-Marc Morandini, a French journalist who runs a popular blog, “I find a Petit Bateau commercial with a little 11 year old girls with hard nipples much more shocking. My daughter isn’t even naked, no need to blow this out of proportion!”.
Loubry also post the following message on her daughter’s Facebook group and subsequently shut it down (Thanks Blackbook for the screengrab):
Her Facebook fan page remains, but Fuck Yeah Thylane Blondeau, which, for the most part, lauded rather than criticized the young model, looks to also have been shut down recently. Before it was shut down, the owner of the blog changed its name to “Thylane Blondeau Pictures.”
We have reached out to Thylane’s agency for comment and will report back when we hear more. For now, we hope Thylane is happy and healthy and being a normal kid. (Fashionista)
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