‘Most Beautiful Girl in the World’ Gets Title of ‘Most Beautiful Face’ Eleven Years Later

Thylane Blondeau departs the Martinez Hotel during the 71st annual Cannes Film Festival at on May 10, 2018 in Cannes, France. Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

A young woman who was once called the “most beautiful” girl in the world is being noticed for her looks again.

Thylane Blondeau was voted “most beautiful face” in the world in 2018, according to TC Candler who is described as a “professional film critic and the creator of the Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Faces of the Year” via the Independent Critics List website.

Blondeau, 17, the daughter of French soccer player Patrick Blondeau and French fashion designer Veronika Loubry, made headlines more than ten years ago after she worked as a child model, Yahoo reported.

At the age of 6 when her face famously appeared on the cover of Vogue Enfants in 2007, Blondeau was dubbed the “most beautiful girl in the world.”

On Instagram, Thylane posted a photo of a video for her 2.6 million followers, saying she can’t believe she took the title again.

“I just can’t believe it myself … thanks so much @tccandler and everyone who voted,” she wrote.

She added: “I never thought i was once number one !! I’m thankful to all of you. I really hope your having great holidays and spend nice Christmas with your family … all the best to all of you guys lots of love,” she wrote, according to Yahoo.

Blondeau was also the face of the spring and summer 2018 campaign of French brand Juicy Couture. Meanwhile, she’s also the founder of her clothing line, Heaven May.

The year-end list also included actress Priyanka Chopra, actress Gal Gadot, actress Lupita Nyong’o, and others. Filipino-American actress Liza Soberano, who got the honor in 2017, was fourth in 2018, according to Newsweek.

For the list, critics select the top 100 faces out of a possible 85,000 celebrities, artists, models, athletes, and well-known people, according to the report.

The top 10 are Thylane Blondeau, Tzuyu (Chou Tzu-yu), Yael Shelbia, Liza Soberano, Audreyana Michelle Nana (Im Jin-ah), Hande Ercel, Oktyabrina Maximova, Lisa (Lalisa Manoban), and Banita Sandhu.

Modeling No Place for Children?

A former child model has said that the fashion industry is no place of children.

“It’s a grown-up industry with grown-up pressures,” says Sara Ziff, who started her modeling career at 14 but is now director of Model Alliance, which seeks to improve working conditions for models, according to a CNN report in 2015.

“While I don’t think there’s any harm in doing the odd modeling job for a Macy’s catalog, too often we see child models who are being catapulted into working as adults. And they don’t have the maturity to handle those situations,” Ziff said.

A model herself, Ziff was asked her opinion if the parents say it’s fine for a child to model.

“It’s not good for the child and it’s not good for the greater public for children to represent the feminine ideal of beauty for women. These clothes are marketed to women, not 13-year-old girls, so why is it (that) a 13-year-old girl is supposed to be the ideal? It’s not good for the girl, because her body will develop and change, and if she has had success at a very young age and she’s valued for her adolescent physique, then she will be pressured to maintain those measurements,” she said.

Ziff also suggested there was sexual harassment in the workplace. “They deserve a workplace that’s free of sexual harassment. Modeling is not an inherently bad or dangerous job, but if you don’t have basic work protections like people in other industries, then it’s not surprising that some people are exploited or abused,” she said.

Meanwhile, protections like minimum wage aren’t common for child models.

“Models are generally treated by the industry as independent contractors, not employees. As independent contractors, models are unable to unionize (that’s why we had to start the Model Alliance from scratch), they’re not entitled to a minimum wage ... they actually lack protection against sexual harassment in the workplace,” Ziff explained.

Finish High School First, She Says

“Anyone interested in modeling should hold off until they’ve finished high school,” Ziff recommended.

“When you work as a model, you are always on call to your agency, and bookings are made last minute (often just a day in advance), so it’s not a job that you can easily juggle with high school. Some of the most successful models didn’t start working until they were over 18, and they benefited from having a bit more maturity and life experience to handle the pressures of the business,” she added.