At nine years old, she was dubbed ‘the most beautiful girl in the world’.

With her piercing azure eyes and long, honey blonde locks, it’s not difficult to see how Kristina Pimenova, 19, from Moscow, Russia, claimed the coveted title at such a young age.

However, her early rise to global recognition came at a cost, when her mother, Glikeriya Pimenova, herself a former model, faced backlash from critics, who claimed that she had sexualised her daughter by posting provocative pictures of her during her childhood.

Glikeriya hit back at the storm of criticism in an exclusive interview with MailOnline in 2014, saying, ‘I do not accept those accusations about the sexualisation of my child.

‘I am certain in my mind all her photographs are absolutely innocent. I have never asked her to take this or that pose, and in fact I must say she does not especially like it when I am photographing her, so I do it quickly and when she doesn’t notice.’

‘You must think like a paedophile in order to see something sexual in these pictures, so it is time for you to see a doctor.’

The comments also failed to deter Kristina from pursuing her career in modelling, and she secured a slew of impressive campaigns for the likes of Vogue, Armani, and Burberry.

Now, ten years after she first gained recognition for her looks, the model is studying at drama school with hopes of becoming a professional actress.

However, despite her supermodel appearance, Kristina maintains a humble outlook on life, and believes that, according to her Instagram bio, ‘beauty is inside’.

Kristina, who is still pursuing her career in modelling, reflected on her journey into the industry in conversation with Avant School.

Speaking in the interview, she said, ‘Modelling happened naturally for me when I was younger, I was just like, ‘let’s try this’, I didn’t even know what it was.

‘I was just playing around; it was like a game. For me, it was a big part of my childhood. It turned into making friends travelling, so it was just really natural.’

While she continues to feature in fashion campaigns, she is also focusing her time on becoming an actress, a goal she has held since she was a young child.

Kristina has listed the Harry Potter franchise among her favourite films, and said that, during her teen years, she wanted to believe in magic.

Talking in a casting interview when was 17, she revealed that she was attracted to acting because it allows her to ‘be anything I want for a while’.

Now, some two years later, Kristina is regularly playing various characters from classic plays as part of her course.

In recent times, the 19-year-old showcased her acting skills in Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

She’s also extended her skills to the film industry, having starred in The Russian Bride, Secret Neighbour and Creators: The Past.

When she’s not behind the camera or on stage, Kristina updates her 2.4 million Instagram followers on her life events, including sharing photographs from a Blackpink concert, where she met the K-Pop stars.

Discussing the backlash against her daughter’s modelling career in 2014, her mother Glikeriya said, ‘Some years ago I posted a picture of little Kristina on the beach in the Maldives hugging her three soft toys and laughing.

‘She was holding all her toys in front of her chest and hugging them, and you know what comments I got to this picture?

”Oh, she is covering her breasts because she thinks she has something to hide!’ Can you believe it? I think people who post something like this have serious psychological problems.’

Glikeriya insisted at the time: ‘All her ‘poses’ are natural. She is just a little girl who is attracting a lot of attention and unfortunately some of this attention is coming from strange people with huge personal problems, keen to throw dirt at anyone.’

She further claimed that the problem is a minority who apply their own prejudices onto entirely innocent and beautiful pictures.

Married to Kristina’s father, retired Russian football star, Ruslan Pimenov, she was anxious to be seen as a responsible mother and to show that her daughter is a perfectly normal girl.

Her portfolio by the age of nine, included Vogue and Armani, yet critics saw a dark side, with one commentator branding a photo of her in shorts as ‘creepy’ while a male user wrote worryingly: ‘I like it’.  

Glikeriya calmly sought to correct what she saw as the misplaced criticisms of her own motives, and her daughter’s poses.

‘We lived in France when I was expecting Kristina,’ explained Glikeriya, adding, ‘I went to Moscow to give birth and soon afterwards returned to France, so Kristina was born in Russia.’

‘Until the age of three we lived in France, and I was astonished to see the amount of attention she attracted from people who saw her.

‘In any public place we visited, people just surrounded her and keep repeating: “Oh, such a sweet child”, “look at her”, and similar comments.

‘Kristina really enjoyed such attention but it was only abroad, I am afraid. When we came back to Russia it was a shock for my child.

‘I remember she was sitting in her pram as I pushed her, and she kept smiling to everybody who passed by, but nobody cared. She turned to me with pure shock on her face – what’s wrong?

‘But I knew she was cute and decided to give it a try. I browsed the internet and found the model agency for children with the most attractive and easy to understand website and sent them Kristina’s photographs.

‘We were invited for a chat, and she was added to their database. Her first photo session took place a little before her fourth birthday. When she turned four, we had our first portfolio done.’

Her career exploded when Kristina’s image caught attention online in Russia and worldwide. At the time, her daughter’s Facebook gained over 2.1 million likes and 315,000 followers on Instagram.

Discussing the criticism that her daughter’s poses were ‘adult’, which attracted disturbing comments like ‘sexy legs’, she said, ‘I do not accept those accusations about sexualisation of my child.’

‘I am certain in my mind all her photographs are absolutely innocent. I have never asked her to take this or that pose, and in fact I must say she does not especially like it when I am photographing her, so I do it quickly and when she doesn’t notice.

‘All her “poses” are natural. She is just a little girl who is attracting a lot of attention and unfortunately some of this attention is coming from strange people with huge personal problems, keen to throw dirt at anyone.’

‘For example, there were many angry comments under a photograph of Kristina playing badminton, she was wearing a T-shirt and shorts.’

Yet this only happened when the picture was highlighted in the Western media – not earlier, when it was on her social media sites, she claimed.

‘This picture in shorts did not attract any negative comments before. Why would anybody be unhappy about these shorts?

‘For God’s sake, what else should a child wear in summer when she is playing badminton? I suggest they sue Roberto Cavalli Junior and Mango Kids for making wicked clothes.

‘Or there was a picture of her by the river, where she is holding a bottle of water in her hands. I took it secretly, she did not even see – and again there were accusations of a ‘sexual pose’ and the wrong sort of clothes.’

She said she simply just saw her daughter as breathtakingly beautiful and wanted to record her as she grew up.

The former model continued, ‘And those comments about long legs? Excuse me, if I see a girl with long legs of any age, I notice it, but I have nothing to do with paedophiles.

‘The same is about beautiful lips or eyes or nose. I think we are having too much of this topic. I consider all the pictures I am posting to be normal, otherwise I would not have posted them.

‘I feel sorry when I read comments and conclusions of people who do not know us, who never met us, but take their right to judge me and my daughter, to shout that she does not have a childhood or that this stupid mother is making money.

‘I am here to tell you that we have enough money, that Kristina has a happy childhood – and that I have an honours degree from a university, so I don’t think these accusations stick.’

Glikeriya described a typical day in Kristina’s life when she was nine to try and show that the girl’s life was much like many others, and in fact is dominated far more by sport – rhythmic gymnastics – than by modelling.

She said, ‘We wake up at 7 am every day, we leave for school at 8 am. I pick up Kristina from school in the early afternoon and drive her to Moscow to her rhythmic gymnastics sports school where she spends four hours six days in a week.

‘We live outside Moscow, so it is at least three hours of driving every day. We come back home about 7 pm, have our dinner, and Kristina does her homework, then bed.

Kristina, who took part in a series of gymnastics competitions throughout her childhood, used modelling as a distraction from her studies and sport, said her mother.

‘When Kristina has a photo session, which usually takes a full day, it is a relief for her, a sort of day off and a pure adventure.’

Among her credits, Kristina was pictured for Armani Junior, Roberto Cavalli, Dsquared2, Minifix, Twin-Set Simona Barbiery, Ermanno Scervino Junior, Fendi, D&G, Replay, Silvian Heach Kids, Monnalisa, Paessagino , Benetton Undercolors , Krytik, Lu Lu by Miss Grant, and Brest.

Glikeriya admitted that the media coverage about Kristina hurt her when, she insisted, her motives are to do the best by her daughter.

‘I don’t like it when media pick up only angry comments about my girl,’ she said.

‘There are many people who have nothing to do, and they just enjoy posting nasty things and watching reactions from other bloggers who take it seriously and start arguing.’

‘I understand that many people are simply envious when somebody is beautiful and successful.

‘Their minds are full of clichés, like the one that all models are brainless stupid cows or children who are doing something extra and have no childhood.’

These are outrageous, cruel, and false stereotypes, she said. ‘It is their problem, not mine.