Take Miranda Kerr, for instance, Australia's It Girl supermodel. It may be a bit silly to expect a model to be a role model but the Gunnedah native, Buddhist and koala lover is regarded as an inspiration for young girls in her country of birth. The fresh-faced Dolly covergirl who went to Paris and New York to star on the cover of Vogue, and walk in parades for Prada, was living the dream.
At 27, having replaced Megan Gale as the highly paid face of David Jones, you would expect better of her than a photo shoot for a French fashion mag that makes her look like a two-bit tart.
In various shots for Numero magazine, Kerr is portrayed as a wanton Catholic schoolgirl, in locker room with hockey stick, sipping water from a bubbler, in a hip-high skirt and thigh-high stockings, or bare-breasted up against a toilet wall, draped in chains and crosses, a lit cigarette in her hand, the bleached straw hair and vacant eyes of a real messed-up bad girl. The photos are said to be a sign Kerr wants to be taken seriously as a ''high-end fashion model''.