A five-year-old from Nigeria was dubbed the “most beautiful girl in the world” this week after a photographer shared her stunning portraits on social media, sending folks into a tizzy.
Photographer Mofe Bamuyiwa snapped the photos of young Jare, 5, and posted them to her Instagram account where they received thousands of likes, according to the Daily Mail. One of the portraits shows Jare in a simple pose staring straight ahead at the camera with her big brown eyes and a head full of curly-black hair.
Her dark skin pops against the dimly-lit back drop.
Photo by Mofe Bamuyiwa.
“Oh yes she’s human ! She’s also an angel!” Bamuyiwa captioned the photo. “I could have made her smile and make her laugh out loud but I put her in their natural moments for us to see through their eyes!”
Users fawned over the portraits and praised Jare in the comments.
“Isn’t she the most beautiful fully Black girl you’ve ever seen?” one person commented.
“She’s too beautiful for this world,” another wrote, while someone else likened her to a “Black Barbie.”
Others took issue with the fact that Jare looked much older than she was and urged the photographer to “let kids be kids.” Bamuyiwa was also accused of doctoring/heavily editing the photo.
“I think this is ridiculous,” one woman wrote. “Extensions and makeup on an infant … I looked at her [Instagram] page and it doesn’t even look like the same human being.”
Jare, 5, and her sisters Jomi and Joba. (Photo by Bisola Ijalana)
In an interview with Yahoo Lifestyle, the Nigeria-based wedding and lifestyle photographer explained her method when it comes to photographing children. She said by positioning Jare in a more mature pose, she’s able to illustrate the “interception between childhood and adulthood.”
“The opportunity came and I had to take a bold step to express my ideas of how I want to take portraits of kids,” she said. “Posing them as adults was my trick to create a timeless portrait.”
As for Jare, Bamuyiwa said the young girl isn’t a professional model but added that she said Jare’s sisters, Jomi, 7, and Joba, 10, have posed for photos as well. The three pose on their own Instagram account titled “The J3 Sisters.”
Bamuyiwa said she was the one who convinced the girls’ mother to launch the social media page. So far, they have more than 5,000 followers.
“All I want is for everyone to see Jare’s powerful potential,” the photographer said. “… I want the photo to speak to her when she has reached her adulthood.”