Nigerian Photographer Mofe Bamuyiwa shared photos of Jare Ijalana to Instagram and Twitter and the stunning images quickly went viral.
“Oh yes she’s human! She’s also an angel!” the photographer captioned one of the portraits.
While the child is undeniably beautiful and photos quickly garnered praise they also garnered backlash for exploiting the young girl.
In another captioned the Bamuyiwa quoted, “All I can see is a powerful woman“ and went on to explain how she wanted to “portray the interception between her childhood and adulthood so both stay timeless.”
“Posing them as adults ! Was my trick to create it a timeless portrait,” she added, as well as crediting the team of hair and make-up artists who worked on the shoot.
While many users and media outlets have commented on her beauty and dubbed her the new 'most beautiful girl in the world', many have also slammed the photographer for exploiting the young model and one even dubbed it as ‘child abuse’.
Some of the comments included:
This is a very cute picture, but it’s child abuse. The model is far too young for all this. We should let children be what they are, children.
She is a very beautiful young lady, with that said let’s all remember and speak of her as a child, which she is, not an adult!!!!!
There is an extreme difference between a woman and a child. Calling her a woman is exploiting and sexualizing a prepubescent female child. Call it what it is. A beautiful child.
If she’s so pretty at 5, why put on makeup!? I think she’s really pretty but I think a5 year old should be a 5 year old. If she’s a 5 yr old then DON'T PIT IN MAKEUP AND TELL ME SHE'S PRETTY!!
She is stunning. But seriously “...interception between childhood and adulthood”? She’s FIVE!!
While others slammed the image for being photographed, with the child’s eyes appearing to have been altered to appear blue.
You can’t photoshop her face and claim that she’s the prettiest girl in the world.
Is this a ‘natural’ photo? It looks like it has been heavily retouched 😳. I have seen other photographs of little Jare with her sisters, they are beautiful little girls, they absolutely don’t need any retouching! 💕
Some users also expressed fears over the child’s safety.
Pls keep her safe and away from men. I saw a comment from a man who wants to marry her. Pls keep her safe.
Welp. There goes her childhood.
