Instagram baby model

[WrongWayMrColins]

One of my friends has set up an Instagram account for her baby. She is a very cute little girl but this is not the normal sharing cute pictures with family and friends. She is promoting her daughter as a model and trying to get partnerships with brands. She takes pictures of their little one in designer outfits and puts in links to the website promoting the clothes.

I am not sure what makes me feel so uneasy about this. I think that it is the idea of making money out of such a young baby. It would never have occurred to me to do this with my own little one.

I feel like I am a mean friend for judging her for doing this as I am sure it is a bit or harmless fun. We all like to think our baby is the cutest and them being a baby model proves other people think that too.

I do feel that I am being a bit unreasonable to Jude my friend for this.

WrongWayMrCollins I know...she’s asking for my professional opinion too so that makes it worse! I think she honestly doesn’t see the correlation. The kids are beautiful but they’ve so far never had a successful casting or audition and Mum doesn’t hide her disappointment so I think they’ve picked up the notion that there is something “wrong” with them or that they aren’t enough. They only get praise for looking pretty/handsome/cute or being good at breakdancing/tap etc but not for being clever/kind/helpful etc. I can’t exactly say “I think you are the problem” but...I think she is. She should just let them be kids and not little dolls that have to pose and advertise things and be scrutinised at auditions etc. It’s a hell of a lot of pressure for a 5 year old!

It's not so much being embarrassed by a cute photo in a baby grow, but we all know blogger pictures are picked up and used to advertise other things, or cheap copies, on sites like wish. If that child suddenly finds their cute picture is being used to advertise a constipation remedy, they might find that embarrassing.

Or in deed their parent might accept a payment to advertise something they later disagree with.

Your friend is probably bored on maternity leave. Just try and avoid the subject (difficult I admit if that's all she talks about) and it will probably pass when she goes back to work.

Might be worth telling her to find out exactly who has the legal rights to her those photos once they are published on social media... apparently it's a grey area.

ShadyLady if they are going to all those auditions and not being successful that would be really upsetting for them. 😢

If she is asking your professional opinion I would talk about ways to boost their self esteem such as praising them for being kind etc rather than saying that you only praise them for doing dance etc.
I would mention that going for all those audio did could be harmful for their mental health but it is the sort of thing that is really hard to word in a tactful way.

The world has gone fucking mad. Does every little piece of someone's life have to be merchantable?

My 10mo is model baby cute. Not just ‘I think he is because I’m his mum’ cute
I couldn’t do this. I think it’s so incredibly vacuous and couldn’t feel ok about plastering his picture all over the internet.