-Kelly-

US television savages child model's mum

20Sep07

MEDIA condemnation in the United States of Gold Coaster Maddison Gabriel's controversial launch into modelling has reduced the 13-year-old's mum to tears.

As television went into overdrive yesterday, Michelle Gabriel -- mother of the Face of the Gold Coast Fashion Week -- sat weeping at her Palm Beach home.

She listened to US critics compare to her to the likes of troubled pop star Britney Spears' mother Lynne, who propelled her daughter to early stardom as a Mouseketeer on US children's television show The Mickey Mouse Club.

She was also stunned by comments on internet sites calling for her to be jailed because she had allowed her daughter to model at age 12; Maddison turned 13 on Sunday.

"It's horrifying," Mrs Gabriel told The Gold Coast Bulletin last night. "We want to try to get on with our lives."

US networks such as NBC and Fox yesterday joined the debate already kickstarted by Prime Minister John Howard in the Australian media last week.

The US show Today, on NBC, showed photographs of the Christian College Year 9 student and aired grabs from her interview with the Australian TV show Today Tonight filmed last week, in which Maddison said it did not matter about her age, it just mattered if she could 'do the job'.

US TV star and former supermodel Janice Dickinson yesterday hurled insults at Mrs Gabriel, speaking of the tribulations of models such as Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell who had run into trouble with drugs and alcohol due to childhood issues over modelling at such a young age and parental abandonment.

"I'm pretty upset about Maddison's mother letting Maddison out on the catwalks of the world ... it's not a safe place," Ms Dickinson told Today co-host Matt Lauer.

"Maddison's mum is a stage mum, just like Britney's mum," she said.

"I'm the world's first supermodel and it's young. It's way too young," she said of Maddison.

Mrs Gabriel last night said that she wanted the debate and criticism to end and hoped her interview yesterday with The Gold Coast Bulletin would be her final one on the subject of her daughter winning the modelling competition last week.

"I had a call from BBC London radio on my mobile phone on Sunday while I was out shopping for Maddi's birthday present, and this morning I had a call from Entertainment Tonight in America wanting to do an interview," said Mrs Gabriel, adding that Today Tonight had knocked on her door at 5am.

"This has all been blown way out of proportion and because it's out of control, there is an element of fear I hold about what will happen next."

Mrs Gabriel said she was trying to protect Maddison from the backlash and had chosen not to show her the American Today show segment, which is able to seen on the show's website on the internet.

"It's hard because she uses the internet like any 13-year-old girl does ... at first she was excited to see her name come up on (web search engine) Google and had a giggle, but I don't want her to see what the sites are saying now.

"At the moment she doesn't know about it."

Mrs Gabriel said her family's friends had been supportive, but she hated the thought of other people talking about them without knowing all the facts on the issue, or what sort of people they were.

"In America they are talking about me by name as if they know who I am, as if they know who this person is."

Mrs Gabriel said she was also disillusioned that the negative feedback would have an impact on her daughter's dream to make a career out of modelling.

"In normal circumstances any child or woman or someone who has aspirations of being a model or building any type of career has years to build that up," she said.

"All the Kristy Hinzes of the world ... none of them had this type of media exposure before they even had a chance to actually grow their modelling career."

She said Maddison had been uneasy when she returned to school on Friday last week amid the national debate going on over her modelling win.

"She has a close group of about eight friends who are protecting her and she has been fine," she said.

"We are a normal family. Both my husband and I work, we have two daughters, the eldest who is 14 is on exchange in Belgium at the moment.

"Maddi goes to school, the beach, plays netball, goes out on the tinnie, has friends and generally does what most 13-year-olds do. She's a great girl."

Mrs Gabriel said she would never consider throwing her daughter on to the global catwalk circuit at such an age, as some critics were suggesting.

"It was, and still is, always intended that Maddi will go to school until Year 12 -- modelling was always to fit around school," she said. "She is a very spiritual person and had a great attitude in life and to date, all this attention hasn't changed her."

Source

She shouldn't be on a Adults Catwalk Fashion and whoever said "she was the face of fashion" were very wrong

sunnykerr

It does seems awefully young to start in that awful business... on the other hand, I don't know the girl, I don't know her parents. Justin Timberlake was on Oprah yesterday and he started working when he was like 9 or 10 and he seems alright...

Who am I to judge?

-Kelly-

That's true but she should have done a kids/teen catwalk fashion instead of Women catwalk

sunnykerr

Fair enough, but I doubt it was her idea to put her daughter in the women's side of fashion. Not that this would be the first time a teenager was put on the women's side either. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure Tyra Banks started out as a teenager, too, and in the women's side as well.

I don't personally see myself doing that with any child of mine. But... so long as there's appropriate parenting, I don't see how it's any business of mine to judge. That's all I'm saying.

elisheva

I find the modelling industry to be very unhealthy and worrying. A 12/13 year old child in there...that's even worse.

I guess I just don't understand the mindset that says, what I want for my child most of all, is for her to be a MODEL. Um. I would want my child to be healthy and to be surrounded with healthy kids her own age. I would want my child to know there's more to beauty than superficial modelling standards. I would want my child to know that eating is healthy Models generally aren't healthy people (something like 40% suffer from an ED, according to a recent British study).

JohannafromIHJ

I think this whole thing is bizarre. If it were a thirteen-year-old boy modelling men's wear, no one would care, but once again the rules are different for girls. Seems like there's a certain fraction of people out there who thinks that the best way to preserve children's innocence and whatnot is to chastisise girls who develop early.

elisheva

A 13 year old boy would never be brought in to model men's wear, though. (And actually I do think that wouldn't go unnoticed, really.)

Anyway, I see what you're saying, but I kind of feel like that's not the issue here..it's not a young woman suffering from a double standard that says female sexuality is scary, it's a young girl who's involved in an industry that is frankly dangerous and unhealthy. I have no problems with young adult women choosing to seek a career in modeling, but parents should not at all be encouraging their children to pursue something like that so young. Especially when a girl is 12/13, she's very vulnerable to all sorts of distorted ideas about beauty and acceptable body types and so on. It just doesn't seem appropriate.

sunnykerr

I agree, parents shouldn't encourage their kids to go into something as scary as the modelling industry. But this wouldn't be the first 13-year-old in history to want to model. And I'm not saying I'd let [i]my[/] 13-year-old do it, but then that would be my business and no one else's.

If the kid is going to model, though, I sure hope her parents are sticking close to her. Which seems to be the case.

Indian Summer

Hmm. I modeled as an adolescent, and honestly... it wasn't always fun, but it's not nearly as bad as you read about, unless you sign with a horrible agent who doesn't protect you from those clients in the first place. Modeling taught me self-confidence- it didn't lead to an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder. I think the issue here is that the only time you hear about the "behind the scenes" side of modeling, it's the horror stories. Not all models are taught to eat tissues or skip lunch. In fact, I used to work with one photographer who preferred we ate within two hours before the shoot, saying it made our eyes look brighter.

In addition, we have no reason to believe this girl wasn't receiving adequate care and attention from her mom, or positive reinforcement about her body image. I know that in my case, learning about airbrushing helped my body image- it puts things in perspective: "Well if they're airbrushing the models, even they aren't that skinny."

It's easy to claim the industry's "horrible" or "unhealthy" if you haven't worked within it, and if all your knowledge of it comes from 20/20 specials and docudramas. But we aren't talking about elite modeling here, and we aren't talking about the horror stories, either.

elisheva

I don't think anyone here is basing their opinion on dramatized news shows like 20/20. I've read quite a few news articles, statistics and editorials that have contributed to my views.

Indian Summer

I'm not trying to say you're uninformed, just that there's such a huge variety of experiences based on who you're signed with, what kind of work you're doing, and for who. We aren't talking about a girl who is at the level of Snejana Onopka or competing with her likes. We're talking about a kid who had one big break that put her in the spotlight, and even that was a relatively tame event compared to the Milan and Paris versions. There's no reason to believe the bad influences you've read about relating to different circumstances have affected her, or that her parents aren't doing a good job of keeping possible body image problems at bay.

elisheva

I just think there's no reason for a kid that age to be that heavily into modeling. I can't imagine why any parent would want that for their child. Obviously as it stands the girl had the right to be in the fashion week events, but IMO girls under a certain age should not be eligible to participate. (A British study that just came out recommended no under 16s, for example.)

JohannafromIHJ

But she's not heavily into modelling. Her mum says she hasn't even booked any paying gigs.

I don't really know that much about what life's like for a catwalk model, but it sounds as though this girl isn't aiming for that kind of a career. If she's just looking do do catalogues and such, it's not that dreadful a life for a young woman. I had two friends in High School who modelled, and while everyone else was out getting drunk and laid, they were at home eating brocolli to make their skin "glowy".

But since when is thirteen-year-olds on the catwalk new? Wasn't there a whole hoopla about something similar to this five years ago?

sunnykerr

A lot of the girls who do the catwalks start very young. I don't know if it's "13 years old" young, but really young. Lisa Marie Presley's daughter's a model. There was a very young woman on Oprah years ago who was also a model. Tyra Banks and Gisele Bunchen were in their early teens when they started. And who knows who else...

I don't think it's the healthiest environment. But then again I'm also the grown-up version of a 15 year old who was utterly convinced she was morbidly obese because I couldn't hold one of my thighs with two hands. And I never modelled. Nowhere near.

So, based on the fact that I don't know this teenager and I don't know her parents either, I seriously wouldn't rush to condemn and judge here. As long as her mother is keeping a close watch on her, in a way where she's the parent and not a financial beneficiary of her daughter's "career," then I have no issue.

LittleMilkJug

When they have twenty five year old models as mothers in ads for something for a family and some of the kids are in their teens, I just don't see the point of picking on one person. The whole advertising world is up ******* creek.