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'Toddlers' mom sues media for sexualizing daughter

She's not sexy and she doesn't know it!That's what "Toddlers & Tiaras" pageant mom Susanna Barrett insists about her 5-year-old glam princess Isabella. Barrett claims that after a video of her little girl singing LMFAO's "I'm Sexy and I Know It" at a night spot surfaced, several media outlets tried to turn the non-sexual performance into something inappropriate, and she's suing mad.According to t
Isabella Barrett at  the \"Toddlers and Tiaras\" Reality Weekly Launch Event benefiting her anti-bullying bracelets on Dec. 29 in Providence, R.I.
Isabella Barrett at the \"Toddlers and Tiaras\" Reality Weekly Launch Event benefiting her anti-bullying bracelets on Dec. 29 in Providence, R.I.Marc Andrew Deley / Getty Images / Today

She's not sexy and she doesn't know it!

That's what "Toddlers & Tiaras" pageant mom Susanna Barrett insists about her 5-year-old glam princess Isabella. Barrett claims that after a video of her little girl singing LMFAO's "I'm Sexy and I Know It" at a night spot surfaced, several media outlets tried to turn the non-sexual performance into something inappropriate, and she's suing mad.

According to the New York Daily News, Barrett filed a $30 million libel lawsuit on Tuesday in Manhattan. She claims that TMZ, The Huffington Post and the Daily Mail described the little girl's act  as "gyrating in a nightclub and singing about her sex appeal" when in fact Isabella was sitting during the song.

"(Isabella) did not understand the concept of sex, let alone 'sex appeal' and could not have been singing about her own sex appeal," Barrett said in her lawsuit. Instead, "it is the defendants who, through their articles, have thrust these false and vulgar characteristics on to Isabella," according to the suit. "As a result, Isabella is now perceived sexually, erotically and pornographically, and (the stories) have placed Isabella in serious physical danger, attracting the attention of others who would seek to sexualize a child."

Not long after the video surfaced, Barrett defended Isabella's videotaped performance to TMZ. She explained that the little girl was at New York's Libation for a pet charity event and started singing when the DJ invited her up, but that they left at the reasonable hour of 9 p.m.

As for how the 5-year-old knows the lyrics to the LMFAO tune? "We just listen to the radio, and that's a real catchy song," she told TMZ at the time.

Do you agree with Susanna that it's the websites' fault for sexualizing Isabella's performance? Tell us what you think on our Facebook page.

 

 

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