Meet the Youngest Model

Kristina Pimenova has been dubbed "the most beautiful girl in the world" but her mother says the eight-year-old Russian supermodel is completely ignorant of her worldwide fame.

On catwalks since the age of three, Kristina, who models for Armani and Roberto Cavalli, is famed for her big blue eyes and bewitching smile, with over 2.5 million fans on Facebook and nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram.

But besides the millions of fans, the Pimenova phenomenon has also raised worries and plenty of hackles, with many claiming some of her photo shoots are too sensual for an underage girl.

Pimenova- who handles her daughter's social media accounts and updates them with new photos almost daily- has rejected the criticism.

"If someone reacts to photos abnormally, it's not my problem," said the young model's mother, adding that Kristina only wears children's clothes and rarely uses make-up in her modelling photos.

Born in Moscow on December 27, 2005, Kristina spent the first months of her life in France, where her footballer father, Ruslan Pimenov, played for FC Metz.

The young model has a busy schedule as after school she goes to gymnastics classes and only comes home at around 8 pm in the evening.

Despite the flak, Kristina is just the latest child model to take the world by storm, with French model Thylane Blondeau seductively posing for Vogue at the age of nine in 2011.

The tiny Russian supermodel has a cult online following thanks to her mother Glikeriya Shirokova, a former model herself, who maintains Facebook and Instagram accounts for Kristina. Shirokova shares photos of her daughter’s glamorous lifestyle – photoshoots, travel and designer clothes – with some of Kristina’s photos receiving almost 200,000 likes.