According to the Daily Mail, Anna Knyazeva is a six-year-old from Russia who’s already signed with a modeling agency. Her Instagram account, managed by her mother, is followed by over half a million people, with fans complimenting Knyazeva’s “doll-like” features in the comments on photos. “You’re the most beautiful child I’ve ever seen,” one person commented recently, while another weighed in, “I think she is the most beautiful girl on the [Earth]” — a sentiment shared by many others.Knyazeva isn’t the first to have the “most beautiful girl” label bestowed on her.
Another Russian girl, Kristina Pimenova, was called the same in 2014, and many people are familiar with French model Thylane Blondeau, who made headlines for being on the cover of French Vogue when she was 10.
There’s a troubling pattern here, however: All three are white, with straight, light-colored hair, thin figures, and “Western” features. It begs the question: Why do we automatically consider this the ideal for beauty? And why do we need to have a “world’s most beautiful girl” in the first place? The title only puts pressure on other girls and young women to live up to the same narrow standards, setting beauty and body expectations others can’t possibly meet — and shouldn’t feel the need to meet.
Instead, we should be encouraging girls and women to embrace who they are and calling out backwards trends like this one.
