![]() The girl's blue, piercing eyes look very adult. More than 1,000 “likes” appeared instantly, as soon as the picture appeared. The little girl’s admirers ask her parents not to be in a hurry with the fashion business and let Kristina have a normal childhood.In the most recent image posted by her mother, Kristina is wearing a black vest over her skinny shoulders. ![]() Images of Kristina sitting on the edge of a bathtub or in bed in her pajamas have come in for particular criticism, including on Kristina’s own Facebook page. And her mother, Glikeriya Pimenova, is a model herself who acts as her daughter’s personal agent, posting new photographs on social networks every few days. Her father, Ruslan Pimenov, was a well known soccer player for Lokomotiv Moscow, among other teams. Kristina’s family has a certain star power. Three years ago, a program on Russian state television, “Vesti,” called Kristina "a million dollar baby." Kristina's long blonde hair, sometimes curled or fixed up in a bun like an adult, her puffy childish cheeks and lips often covered in make-up, have appeared on the cover of Vogue Bambini, and shined for Dolce & Gabbana, Benetton, and Armani. The Pimenova sensation has been growing for a while. (Ironically, perhaps, this video segment is posted on Kristina’s Facebook page.) “It just becomes dangerous,” said Shields. But Shields said she was concerned about the social media environment today, which spreads the images so far and fast, and often with disturbing anonymous comments. “I don’t think they’re that bad, these photos,” Shields told Meredith Viera. And while the “beautiful” is evident, especially those penetrating grey-blue eyes, there’s an uncomfortable edge to some of the photographs that blurs the difference between “girl” and “woman.”īrooke Shields, 49, who started modeling when she was less than a year old, posed nude when she was ten, and played a child prostitute in the Louis Malle film “Pretty Baby” when she was 12, recently said she didn’t think the pictures of Pimenova she’d seen were particularly suggestive. One fashion blog named her recently as “the most beautiful girl in the world,” full stop. She’s probably a very likeable kid, in fact, but the popularity is all about the pictures. A tank top simply doesn’t pay the rent.MOSCOW - Do you know any children with 2,500,000 “likes” on their Facebook pages? A nine-year-old Russian girl living in Moscow, Kristina Pimenova, just topped that number. “Many younger, less established models are working in debt to their agencies, and they struggle to cover their day-to-day expenses. “We believe that models, like all workers, deserve to be paid for their work,” Ms. Sara Ziff, an American model and filmmaker, recently initiated the Model Alliance to protect and enforce models by devising a Models’ Bill of Rights. Some are unpaid or paid only with clothes, and some find themselves in debt - which makes them vulnerable to predation. ![]() However, even here in the United States, it’s astonishing how vulnerable young models are to exploitation. Indeed, some young Russian models find international success - as evidenced on the catwalks of New York Fashion Week. Masha’s fate is currently unknown our recent efforts to contact her have not been successful, but her Facebook page suggests she is still an aspiring model. Arbaugh initially approached us and suggested we make a film, which became a feature-length documentary, “Girl Model.” She wrote to us: “I have been traveling and documenting in Russia and Ukraine the journey of these young girls that become prostitutes and fashion models, or the foggy lines that exist between both.” Our feature documentary, from which this Op-Doc is adapted, traverses these foggy lines. When we filmed Masha in 2009, the scouts said that these girls - often poor in a society of extreme income inequality - are desirable not just for their looks but because they are malleable and easier to guide and direct. The Op-Doc also introduces Ashley Arbaugh, a former American model turned international model scout, who seeks out teenagers with her Russian comrades. Rural Siberia is a thriving location for scouts hoping to recruit teenage girls as young as 12 and export them overseas. Sometimes hundreds of girls audition at these model castings other times a few dozen show up. In this Op-Doc video we present Masha, a 13-year-old aspiring model who attends an open casting call in Siberia, Russia.
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