Child models have been causing controversy since the 1980s: Brooke Shields, who was 12 when she appeared, heavily made-up, in the 1978 film Pretty Baby, above, was 14 when she first appeared on the cover of Vogue. Photograph: Allstar via The GuardianBrewing in the Thylane Lena-Rose Blondeau 10-year-old model controversy is the conversation we really want to have — and have been writing about for two years.

While I don’t agree with The Observer’s Carole Cadwalladr’s specific comments about Tom Ford being a gay male designer not on the side of women like myself, nor do I feel that way about Marc Jacobs, I DO agree with her general commentary in today’s Vogue is not a magazine for children: Designers may be using 10-year-old models to sell clothes to grown women. I’m not buying it.

But then, it has long been said that fashion is a con-trick by largely gay male designers to make women look more like men: breastless, hipless, as skinny as a boy.