Morgan Featherstone

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Morgan Featherstone
Birthdate:	October 20, 1994 (1994-10-20) (age 13)
Birth location:	Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Height:	171cms
Eye color:	Blue
Hair color:	Blonde
Skin color:	Fair
Ethnicity:	Caucasian

Morgan Featherstone (born October 20, 1994) is a fashion model based in Brisbane, Australia.

Featherstone's modeling career began at six months of age when she appeared in a national Australian Dairy Farmers cheese commercial and she quickly became one of Australia's top child models. She was the subject of controversy when, at 8 years of age, fashion photos of her were displayed around the world.^[1] Featherstone's pictures were used to market goods in the Australian and Asian markets,^[2] but they generated a public backlash when her mature poses were seen as the naturalized sexualization of young girls' bodies.^[1] According to her parents, Amy Dean and David Featherstone, looking older was not the intention.^[3]

The publicity generated helped to boost her career; she flew to Hollywood to audition for roles in the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful and the drama Charmed, and she was also signed with a cosmetics company in a deal worth tens of thousands of dollars and signed with model agents in Berlin, Tokyo and Los Angeles.^[4] She was also the subject of German and British documentaries, and signed a financial contract with Scottish documentary makers Wark Clements in 2004.^[4]

Featherstone was the youngest ever cover model on "Who Weekly" magazine (August 25, 2003) and has also appeared on the covers of Australian magazines "New Idea"(twice),"Woman's Day", London's celebrity magazine "Celebs" (May 23, 2004) and numerous others worldwide. Photos of Featherstone with celebrities such as Delta Goodrem, Cameron Diaz, Alyssa Milano, Rose McGowan, Kiss, Cold Chisel, the Veronicas, Anthony Mundine and Brian McFadden have appeared in numerous magazines around the world and Featherstone appears in a Gene Simmons DVD being bounced playfully on Simmons knee. When asked about Featherstone Simmons replied "she will go on to big things, I'm sure of it".^[5]

She was used as the feature model in newspaper stories (Courier Mail 14/7/2006) based on research conducted which suggested good-looking people are more intelligent. The article highlighted her academic achievements countering suggestions that her modeling career would hamper her schoolwork. Despite intense media speculation that her modeling career would cause long-term harm to her development it appears from media articles that the opposite has occurred with journalists commenting on her friendly and down to earth personality.

This was highlighted in September 2007 when Featherstone appeared in a two page article in Sydney's Daily Telegraph (Daily Telegraph 20/9/2007) with the headline "From Child Model to Model Child" and on Channel 9's "A Current Affair" highlighting her modeling and academic achievements and detailing her wishes to be involved in animal conservation. She rejected claims that her modeling career ruined her childhood and said she would be happy to stop modeling if it meant she could realize her dreams of working with animals.^[6]

In October 2007, Featherstone appeared in a two page article in Australia's Woman's Day magazine^[7] (October 15, 2007) where she stated she would never smoke, drink alcohol or take drugs. When asked what she would do when someone asked her to try them she replied she would tell them that "I haven't been hit by a car yet and I don't want to try that either".

Featherstone recently held a fashion parade in Brisbane City that raised $10 000 for charity. Unconfirmed media reports have recently stated Featherstone is currently registering a charity to raise funds for under-privileged children. When asked about the charity Featherstone refused to confirm or deny the story and stated "I don't like to talk about things that haven't happened yet".

Featherstone recently appeared on Australian current affairs program "Today Tonight" (February 26, 2008)^[8] in a story that labelled her as "Australia's youngest home owner" where she proudly showed off her 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house she was in the middle of renovating. In the same week Featherstone's photo was used as a background photo on Australian television breakfast program "Sunrise" for an interview with Doctor Karen Brooks about bad role models for children. Also mentioned in the interview were Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Brooks has attacked Featherstone viciously in the media about being a bad example for other children numerous times since 2003. Featherstone has stated that she has never met Brooks but "she is allowed to have her opinion about me".

On the 5th March 2008 Featherstone appeared in the Courier Mail newspaper where she spoke strongly against drug use of any kind and criticised the Queensland Premier for announcing she had tried marijuana and didn't regret it. Featherstone stated that she would expect the Queensland Premier to regret doing anything that was against the law and that was so potentially harmful.

Featherstone was used in stories on teenage models that appeared on Australian current affairs program "Today Tonight" (April 11, 2008 and May 20, 2008) along with 14 year old Polish model Monika Jagaciak who was banned from appearing in Fashion Week due to her age. Featherstone was again criticised for her involvement in the modeling industry and these concerns were heightened when Featherstone travelled to Hong Kong in June 2008 and appeared in numerous adverting campaigns which many critics believed portrayed Featherstone as being in her late teens.