She might only be 12-years-old, but Katya Perova is taking Instagram by storm.
The young Queensland model has almost 50,000 followers – posing in all kinds of different clothing, which her mum Iuliia Perova doesn’t have to pay a penny for.
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‘Katya gets sent thousands of free clothes’ Iuliia told Daily Mail Australia. ‘I have a professional camera and we do photoshoots in them at the weekends.
Katya, pictured wearing a Vogue flat cap, models thousands of new clothes for her Instagram
Her mum Iuliia takes 500 pictures of Katya at the weekend, then chooses the best to upload
‘We take around 500 pictures in lots of different outfits then I’ll chose the best ones to upload’.
The Perova family moved to Queensland from Moscow two years ago, in search of a more-relaxed and enjoyable life on Australia’s east coast.
But on arrival, Iuliia said her daughter had very low confidence: ‘Katya was a very shy person. She really struggled because her level of English wasn’t very good.
‘I told her everyday: “you’re so pretty, you should be a model”. But she wouldn’t believe me’.
Eventually Katya’s friends encouraged her to try modelling and after a while she decided to give it a go.
‘Everyone kept saying that she was built for modelling, so I took a couple of professional photographs of her. Everything is on social media now, so we created an Instagram account. We just kept getting so many nice comments.’
Her mum encouraged her to pose after ‘everyone kept saying that she was built for modelling’
Katya, 12 (pictured) began to express herself in pictures and build up her own self confidence
Iuliia said her 12-year-old daughter gets around 200 new Instagram followers a day
‘Katya began expressing herself in her pictures. In front of a professional camera, she immediately started to open up. It’s really built her self-confidence – she’s forgotten how to be shy!’.
Iuliia said her 12-year-old daughter gets around 200 new followers a day, and while it’s hard to keep track of them, she doesn’t worry about her daughter’s presence online.
’99 percent of the comments she receives are positive. 1 percent are what I consider inappropriate. Comments like: “You have an amazing body” – that shouldn’t be said to a child.
Katya, 12 (pictured) got comfortable in front of the camera and ‘forgot how to be shy’
Iuliia says 99 percent of her daughters comments are positive, with 1 percent ‘inappropriate’
Her mum says that through Instagram she’s introducing Katya to the world of modelling
‘I immediately block these people. But in the whole history, there’s been a maximum of 10 people’.
Iuliia said that Katya is happy to pose for photographs on her terms, while she is not being paid: ‘If people pay money they make demands.
‘I’m sure one day she will be in demand, but she can only do that when she is ready mentally’.
Does Instagram come before her studies?
‘School and after-school classes come first, Instagram is just a hobby.
‘One day she will get to travel to other countries and walk up and down catwalks – she’s already done catwalks – but it takes a lot of work. It’s exhausting, so we’re going to wait to earn money from that.
‘We are building her as a person, not as a model. I take pictures of her now to try and help her learn, understand and experience modelling, but she’s very clever and will find her way in life.’
Katya, 12 (pictured) receives thousands of likes on her Instagram pictures
Iuliila: ‘We are building her as a person, not as a model’ and Katya can make her own way in life
Her mum Iuliia says she doesn’t worry about her daughter’s social media presence
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