For young girls, it starts with lip gloss

Lights, camera ...

What happens when you allow 5- to 7-year-old girls to play dress-up with fancy gowns and costume jewelry? They eagerly get gussied and strike a pose. In her photo series “Dress-Up Girls,” photographer Lindsay McCrum explores the way beauty and fashion in popular culture influence young girls. “It wasn’t ‘Toddlers & Tiaras,’ and it wasn’t the parents driving any of this," said McCrum of her shoots. "Even if a girl didn’t watch much TV and wasn’t on the Internet, modeling and posing are still so pervasive in terms of media, billboards, movies – it’s everywhere.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

Glammed up with Mom

McCrum got the idea for the “Dress-Up Girls” series while shooting mom-and-daughter studio portraits of Christine Burgin, pictured here with her then-6-year-old daughter, Lola. As McCrum explains, “To have them be the same height, we put her daughter on a pedestal. ... After I had photographed them, I did a few shots of just the daughter on the stand. Although she was quite young, she started posing like she was a model (or) rock star. Her father walked through during the shoot and was mildly horrified to see his little daughter looking so glamorous and grown-up.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

An immediate ‘transformation’

“I was fascinated by the transformation and how seriously invested [Lola had been] in being a model,” McCrum continued. “She was acutely aware of how a model was supposed to pose and comport herself in front of the camera. She was also extremely pleased to be seen in this light. Back at [the] studio, I started photographing more little girls on the same pedestal.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

Cool and confident

McCrum’s photos are striking because of how focused and self-assured the young models are in front of the camera. “All of a sudden each one of them would start affecting these poses,” McCrum recalled. (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

Excited to participate

All the girls who participated in McCrum’s “Dress-Up” series ranged in age from 5 to 7, and all were eager to take part once they saw the prints from Lola’s photo shoot. “A friend of mine who is a clothing designer lent me some sample gowns for the photo shoots and I found some imitation jewelry,” McCrum said. “The girls would not only pick out what dresses they’d like to wear for the photographs but how they’d like to accessorize their outfits.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

'Miss Starci, Age 6'

This image of a perfectly poised 6-year-old girl is featured in Ray Merritt’s photography book “Full of Grace: A Journey Through the History of Childhood.” It also will be displayed at a “Full of Grace” exhibition Merritt is curating at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre in West Palm Beach, Fla, on view from Jan. 16 to March 17, 2012. (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

The age-old game of dress-up

McCrum photographed her “Dress-Up Girls” series about six years ago. In many ways, she noted, the girls’ actions in these photos are timeless. “Remember being a kid and going up into the attic and dressing up in your mother’s clothes and clomping around in her high heels?” she said. “It was just goofing around, and a real sense of this, too, was just about play.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

Seeing modeling as desirable

The modern-day difference, McCrum observed, was the girls’ admiration of models and appreciation for the whole idea of modeling. “These kids had a really heightened sense of what it meant to be a model and what beauty was about,” she said. “When you were 6 years old, did you ever say you wanted to grow up and be a model? Don’t you think that’s kind of interesting? They viewed it not only as a viable vocation, but as a really desirable vocation.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

Passionate about portraits

McCrum was a painter for most of her life before 2003, when she switched exclusively to portrait photography. Her portraits also are captured in her photography book “Chicks with Guns,” which was published in October and featured on TODAY.com. (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

Serious business

McCrum said she finds it fascinating to see the ways children mirror adult roles and assume grown-up identities. “Clearly playing dress-up and being beautiful is serious business,” she said, “even if you’re only 6 years old.” (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation

More information

To learn more about photographer Lindsay McCrum, visit her website by clicking here. To learn more about the “Full of Grace: A Journey Through the History of Childhood” exhibition in Florida, visit the website of the Palm Beach Photographic Centre. (Lindsay McCrum) Share Back to slideshow navigation