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- Dubai 04:27 05:45 12:20 15:47 18:49 20:07
Sofia Mechetner signed a lucrative £170,000, two-year-deal with Dior - sparking a furious global debate over 'child exploitation' in the fashion industry. (Facebook/Sofia Mechetner)
It's been weeks since 14-year-old Sofia Mechetner headlined Christian Dior's haute couture show in a diaphanous white chiffon gown.
Her story has now gone viral but her soft jaw-line, pink cheeks has also caught everyone's attention.
(Facebook/Sofia Mechetner)
Looking closely through her sheer dress you can see her tender age.
This girl grew up on run-down council estate with her single mum who juggled part-time jobs to make ends meet.
Mechetner shared a cramped room with her brother and sister, slept on a mattress on the floor and the family was so poor they sometimes couldn't even afford cornflakes for breakfast.
(Facebook/Sofia Mechetner)
The teenager's story from a down at heel housing estate to the catwalks of Paris, is a rags riches story that all the makings of a modern-day Cinderella fairytale.
A few weeks after her stroke of fate, the teenager was marching down the runway at Paris Fashion Week, as she opened the Dior Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2015-16 in a flowing white gown.
(Facebook/Sofia Mechetner)
Sofia's controversial modelling career started when she ran into a top-class fashion designer in a Paris shop, who signed her up on a two-year deal worth £170,000.
Her new life is of glitzy, high-end fashion parties and modelling shoots.
Dior blasted by campaigners for unveiling a 14-year-old model as its new 'face'.
What some see as a Cinderella story, other see as exploitation. Because Sofia is only 14-years-old.
(Facebook/Sofia Mechetner)
Campaigners have called the appointment a 'disappointing step back in time'. According to them a girl her age should be studying, playing, going out.
Although her mother holds down numerous jobs as a carer for old people as a seamstress and a masseuse, she barely makes enough to make ends meet.
In order to provide for her children, she relied on Sofia for help with her siblings, bringing them home after school, cooking them dinner and doing the laundry. Sofia also helped her mother clean apartments after school.
Long-limbed, measuring 5ft 8in with high cheekbones, long blonde hair and striking blue eyes, Sofia did not have any modelling experience.
She was still signed up on the spot by a modelling agency who then introduced her to an exclusive boutique French modelling agency in Paris.
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