Star Struck Style

November 2 is Julia Stegner’s birthday.

There are probably a lot of people who don’t know who Julia Stegner is. She is one of those models that you’ve seen hundreds of times, but you never learn her name.

Stegner was the face of Maybelline for years, and she has raked in a considerable fortune as a result. For that reason, I was surprised when I visited famousbirthdays.com and saw that she was the sixth model ranked by popularity amongst the thirteen models listed who share a November 2 birthday. Then I realized that I had no idea who the other twelve models were.

That’s par for the course on the Famous Birthdays site. I’m sure that the site is completely automated and based on web-searches alone. So, for instance, if you’re a twelve-year-old Instagram star whose parents post nearly-pornographic pictures of you in full hair and makeup, you’re likely to have a high ranking on the site because all the other kids think you’re a real model with real credentials in the world of fashion.

It’s gross. It was gross when Teri Shields pimped out Brooke Shields in the seventies, it was gross when Herb Ritts photographed Milla Jovovich when she was twelve, and it’s just as gross today. While I didn’t see Stegner’s star eclipsed by one of these little kids, it’s a common occurrence when I’m looking up birthdays.

In my new book, I make it quite clear that I’m disgusted by Lolita looks and the idea of grown women dressing like little girls. It goes the other way, too. In a week where the Kevin Spacey/Anthony Rapp scandal is big news, it makes me happy that my words have been committed to print. But let me say it again, just in case you weren’t paying attention: kids aren’t sexy. Don’t try to make them sexy, and don’t encourage them to explore their own sexuality when they are unable to consider the consequences of their actions.

I’m supposed to be talking about the lovely, thirty-three-year-old Julia Stegner. Forgive me if I just needed to get that off my chest. It just amazes me that these things even need to be said.