Fashion's Mini Moguls

On school nights, most 13-year-old girls can be found toiling over algebraic equations (if they're the studious type) or tinkering with their Facebook profiles (if they're less so). But Hollywood star Elle Fanning is not your typical 13-year-old girl. Consider one evening last May when, instead of curling up on the couch to watch a re-run of Glee, the Year Eight student was thousands of kilometres away from home attending the Costume Institute Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Dubbed "the Oscars of the East Coast", the annual celebration draws the biggest names in Hollywood and fashion, and this year's event, a tribute to the late designer Alexander McQueen, was even more star-studded than usual. Elle and her older sister, Dakota, 17, ascended the red-carpeted stairs with the ease of seasoned veterans. Her hair in a chic topknot, Elle looked demure yet fashion-forward in a vintage-inspired Valentino ensemble; Dakota wore a lovely pale yellow flowered gown, also by the designer. The willowy blondes posed arm in arm for photos as A-list stars, such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Bradley Cooper, trickled past, along with the evening's co-chairs, actor Colin Firth and US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour. For most teenage girls, it was the stuff of daydreams; for Elle, it was just another day on the job.

Click here to see a gallery of the latest mini fashion moguls!

Ever since she began acting at the age of two, Elle has been a critical darling. She's appeared in more than 15 films and is, by now, a millionaire many times over. But these days it's the fashion industry that's really taking notice of the pretty teen. Designers Laura and Kate Mulleavy, the creative minds behind uber-hip label Rodarte, have chosen Elle as their new muse; earlier this year she starred in a short film promoting the label. Fashion industry bible Women's Wear Daily declared that Elle has earned "a permanent seat at the cool kids' table", while last year one fashion editor gushed over the actress's lithe, 168cm frame: "It sounds crazy to say someone has a good figure at 12, but she captures a youthful spirit. She's not oversexed, but she can wear clothing well."

Crazy? Quite possibly. But Elle is hardly the only youngster to inspire such hyperbolic praise. She joins a crop of young stars who are redefining childhood fame. Unlike their troubled predecessors, like Michael Jackson and Lindsay Lohan, this generation – which includes Elle, Dakota, True Grit star Hailee Steinfeld, 14, and Willow Smith, 10 – hail from stable, loving families. Yet they're coming of age in an era when celebrity culture is more pervasive, consumerist, and youth-obsessed than ever.

The nature of fame itself has evolved considerably in the past decade. Hollywood and the fashion industry have become inextricably linked and, these days, successful actresses are as likely to launch their own clothing line as they are to appear on Broadway. Almost innately, today's child stars understand the importance of this alliance. Before they've even grown their adult teeth, young actresses have well-formed opinions on fashion. (In case you were wondering, Mad Men actress Kiernan Shipka, 11, simply adores Chanel and Burberry.)

But the symbiosis goes even further. Teen idols were once used to sell movie tickets and soft drink to their peers; today, they sell prohibitively expensive designer goods to grown-ups. Extremely young fashion models have been replaced by even younger celeb-rities on the covers of fashion magazines and in the glossy advertising campaigns within them. In 2007, Marc Jacobs tapped Dakota Fanning, then just 12, to represent his spring/summer collection, and she's now the face of his Oh, Lola perfume. Oscar-nominated actress Hailee Steinfeld, 14, is the new face of Miu Miu, whose dresses cost well beyond the price range of most 40 year olds. The casting is unabashedly manipulative; consumers can remain as lithe, dewy and wrinkle-free as Dakota or Hailee...if they buy the right brand.

At the same time, these luxury labels are targeting ever-younger customers. In the past 18 months, Gucci, Fendi and Lanvin have all launched children's clothing lines. Parents with the means and the inclination can pay to turn their children into fabulous designer mini-mes. In this day and age, label-consciousness can't start soon enough.

This fixation with the young has become so extreme that adults are now taking fashion cues from teens. Tavi Gevinson started a fashion blog from her Chicago bedroom at the age of 11. Her sophisticated but playful take on clothing made her an instant sensation with the youth-obsessed fashion industry. Now 15, Tavi is a front-row fixture at Fashion Week in New York and Paris, and in early September launched online magazine Rookie, aimed at teenage girls.

As Tavi illustrates, the internet has also changed the nature of fame for today's child stars. Justin Bieber, 17, is already an international heart-throb who incites riots virtually everywhere he goes. He got his start in a very 21st-century way: by posting his music on YouTube, aged 12. Perhaps the starkest indication of his notoriety is his 12.5 million Twitter followers (more than Barack Obama and second only to Lady Gaga).

According to Dr Alan Ravitz, a psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute in New York, fame is particularly addictive to youngsters. "These kids get a lot of attention, much more so than you or I," he notes. "It sets up unrealistic expectations of what's normal. Eventually, when they're no longer getting so much attention, they feel the absence more acutely."

Social media makes it easier for attention-hungry stars to indulge their addiction – and easier to quantify their popularity. (Imagine how Justin will feel if, in a year, he's down to a mere five million Twitter followers?) At the same time, gossip websites have turned the private lives of child stars into fodder for our titillation. "Our interest in celebrities is not a new phenomenon, but their ubiquity is," says Dr Ravitz. With a 24/7 news cycle to fill, no star is too young to be the subject of gossip. Last autumn, awkward photographs of Justin's make-out sessions with his girlfriend (and fellow teen star), Selena Gomez, were splashed on the cover of magazines worldwide. Likewise, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt's tomboy style has generated much cruel speculation in the tabloids.

Like Bieber, Suri Cruise has attained a level of cultural importance wildly disproportionate to her age. Indeed, in 2008, the then two year old was named "most influential toddler" by Forbes magazine and, according to mum Katie Holmes, Suri is one discriminating tot. "She won't let me leave unless I'm wearing what she wants me to wear. She's got great taste," Holmes has said. Suri had better be happy; her impressive wardrobe includes a reported $140,000 shoe collection and more than $3 million worth of designer clothing.

Holmes isn't the only one listening to Suri's dictates. Once she's spotted in an outfit, it sells out within days. Capitalising on her daughter's trend-setting ways, it's rumoured that Holmes will launch her own line of children's clothing, with Suri as its face. Similarly, Madonna, along with daughter Lourdes Ciccone Leon, 14, has launched a clothing line, called Material Girl, for Macy's. These collaborations are part of a larger Hollywood trend: kids are no longer considered impediments to a career; they are, if anything, a sure-fire way to boost one. Stars routinely sell pictures of their newborns for seven figures, and there's no accessory quite as eye-catching as a sharply dressed toddler.

To see this phenomenon in action, look no further than the Smith dynasty. It used to be that kids Willow and Jaden were just two unusually cute kids who occasionally went to their parents' film premieres; now they're celebrities in their own right. Like her dad, 10-year-old Willow is fast becoming a star in multiple mediums. Last year she hit the charts with her single, "Whip My Hair". She has quickly taken to the VIP life, and already employs her own stylist. Next on Willow's to-do list is, of course, the big screen. Earlier this year there was talk of her starring in a remake of the musical Annie, co-produced by Jay-Z. "When you have that sort of talent, there's no such thing as too young," the rap mogul has said.

Click here to see a gallery of the latest mini fashion moguls!

Why do it? Like all stage mothers, Jada Pinkett Smith believes her children were destined for the limelight. "I don't want to sound arrogant, but I don't really think I expected anything different. I always knew there would be a lot of talent there," she has said. But her words are tainted ever so slightly by narcissism: "They're both like their mom and dad in that they can do anything."

Anything, that is, except not be famous.