Kristina Pimenova, once hailed as the “world’s most beautiful girl” as a youngster, has triumphed over familial criticism to work with top-tier fashion labels.
Now on the verge of becoming a professional actress, Kristina has graced campaigns for high-profile names like Vogue, Armani, and Dolce & Gabbana. Despite her success, the young Russian maintains humility, evidenced by her Instagram bio which states, “beauty is inside”.
This stands in stark contrast to the early acclaim she received when she started child modelling at just three years old. Controversy arose when her mother Glikeriya was slammmed for sharing what some considered provocative photos of her daughter online – allegations she firmly rebuffed saying she wasn’t “sexualising” Kristina.
Today, at 19, Kristina credits the past uproar with endowing her the resolve to “be anything I want for a while”.
Continuing to make a splash in the fashion scene, Kristina has also modelled for renowned brands like Burberry and Monnalisa, and is garnering attention for her budding acting talent, following a recent appearance in the classic play Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky in Russia, reports the Mirror.
In a fresh interview on her home soil, Kristina reflected: “Modelling happened naturally for me when I was younger, I was just like, ‘let’s try this’, I didn’t even know what it was. I was just playing around; it was like a game. For me, it was a big part of my childhood. It turned into making friends travelling, so it was just really natural.”
Kristina, a fan of the Harry Potter films and boasting over two million Instagram followers, garners heaps of support and admiration online—a stark contrast to her mother’s experiences with public criticism during Kristina’s earlier years.
Glikeriya hit back at critics in 2014, stating: “I do not accept those accusations about the sexualisation of my child. I am certain in my mind all her photographs are absolutely innocent. I have never asked her to take this or that pose, and in fact I must say she does not especially like it when I am photographing her, so I do it quickly and when she doesn’t notice. You must think like a paedophile in order to see something sexual in these pictures, so it is time for you to see a doctor.”
While Glikeriya herself once modelled, she maintained that her daughter’s “poses” were completely natural, even when captured on a beach. The mother added: “She is just a little girl who is attracting a lot of attention and unfortunately some of this attention is coming from strange people with huge personal problems, keen to throw dirt at anyone.”