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The REAL Stories Behind The Worlds MOST BEAUTIFUL KIDS

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Two little girls got tagged “most beautiful in the world” online, and neither one has been able to escape it since.

Long before Instagram turned toddlers into brands, a French girl named Thylane Blondeau was already walking runways at four years old. Her successor, a Russian girl named Kristina Pimenova, would inherit the same headline a decade later and the same avalanche of attention that came with it. Both cases raise the same uncomfortable question: what happens to a child once the internet decides she’s the most beautiful one alive.

• Thylane Blondeau was scouted in Paris at age three, walked for Jean Paul Gaultier at four, and was crowned the “most beautiful girl in the world” at six after appearing in Vogue Enfants.
• A 2011 Vogue Paris editorial featuring a then-ten-year-old Blondeau in heavy makeup and heels ignited an international debate over the sexualization of child models.
• Nine-year-old Kristina Pimenova was given the same “most beautiful girl in the world” label by Women Daily magazine in late 2014, a designation that pushed her mother-run social accounts past a million followers.

The French Prodigy Who Started at Four

Thylane Blondeau was born in April 2001 to former French footballer Patrick Blondeau and TV presenter Véronika Loubry, which put her in front of cameras almost from birth. She was scouted on a Paris street at age three, and by four she was already walking a runway for Jean Paul Gaultier. Two years later, her appearance in Vogue Enfants earned her the “most beautiful girl in the world” tag, a label that followed her name in headlines for the rest of the decade.

Vogue Paris and the Backlash

The attention turned uneasy in 2011, when a ten-year-old Blondeau appeared in a Vogue Paris editorial dressed in heavy makeup, jewelry, and high heels. The images spread far beyond the fashion press and set off a genuine international argument about how far the industry should be allowed to go with children — the same debate that later trailed contestants examined in America’s Next Top Model contestants who actually made it into the business as adults. By 2017, Blondeau had moved on from the controversy and into the mainstream, signing with IMG Models, walking for Dolce & Gabbana, and landing a brand ambassador deal with L’Oréal Paris.

Russia’s Answer: Kristina Pimenova

Kristina Pimenova was born in December 2005 to Russian footballer Ruslan Pimenov and former model Glikeriya Shirokova, and she started modeling at age three. Her early bookings included Armani Kids, Roberto Cavalli Junior, and DSquared2, plus a Vogue Italia editorial that put her on the same tier of campaigns Blondeau had worked years earlier.

Women Daily magazine crowned nine-year-old Kristina Pimenova the “most beautiful girl in the world” in late 2014 — and her mother’s Instagram management turned that headline into a million-plus followers almost overnight.

Two Paths Into Global Fashion

The viral fame around Pimenova brought its own scrutiny, particularly over how her mother ran the social accounts built around a nine-year-old’s image. In early 2016, at age ten, Pimenova relocated from Russia to the United States after signing contracts with LA Models and New York Models — a move that shifted her career from viral novelty toward the same agency system that had absorbed child stars weighing a jump into the modeling industry. Blondeau, six years older, was already through that transition by 2017, working under IMG’s mainstream fashion umbrella rather than viral headlines.

By mid-2017, the two “most beautiful girl in the world” holders were on opposite ends of the same pipeline — Blondeau on Dolce & Gabbana runways and L’Oréal campaigns at sixteen, Pimenova a decade younger and just a year into her relocated life under LA Models and New York Models representation in the U.S.