Super 8 star and 13-year-old fashionista in the making, ELLE FANNING (yes, that’s Dakota’s lil’ sis) graced the cover of Marie Claire. Let’s see how a tween looks in tens of thousands of dollars worth of fashion, shall we?

Dress and cardigan by Dior, skirt by D&G, shoes by Alberta Ferretti, bracelet by House of Flora

Well, this is pretty fabulous. It’s not exactly difficult to make a tall, thin, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl look beautiful, but it can be a challenge to make a 13-year-old girl look stylish without looking horrifically inappropriate for her age. The pastels are sweet but not saccharine, and they are simply magnificent with her porcelain skin. And can we just talk about the shoes? I think I could stare at those all day and be happy as a clam.

Blouse by Louis Vuitton, gloves by Carolina Amato

As a small girl who looked twelve years old until midway through college, I personally understand that certain trends only look good on women mature enough to wear them ironically. If I put on a babydoll dress or a grandma sweater, I didn’t look hip, I just looked like a child. And Elle actually IS a child, so this nun-in-training thing doesn’t really work for her either. But the gloves are so cute that I don’t really give a shit.

Dress by Prada, gloves by LaCrasia

Love the hair and the pose, but she has literally made the exact same face in every shot so far. I know she’s thirteen and an actress, not a model, but showing off just a teensy bit of emotional range shouldn’t be too far out of an actress’s wheelhouse.

Dress by Lanvin, belt by Meredith Wendell, bracelet by Emporio Armani

Probably my least favorite photo of the bunch. She’s still making the same face, but now it comes off creepy in that weird-child-in-a-horror-movie sort of way. The pose is terrible – every part of her body looks disjointed from the rest – and throwing some mesh over her head isn’t helping.

Coat and dress by Alberta Ferretti, shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood, bangles by Joan Goodman

Photo #5 of the same exact facial expression. That’s pushing it. And this coat is basically the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen. I dig the tousled hair, but that’s about it.

Dress by Stella McCartney, tights by DKNY, bracelet by House of Flora

She’s sort of smiling! Yay! I like the fun, child-like pose, but is this Stella McCartney dress going to be in every fashion magazine this summer? We’ve already seen this dress on Emma Stone in Elle, and we saw the blouse version on Blake Lively in Glamour, and here it is on Elle Fanning in Marie Claire. It’s cute and all, but not cute enough for three covers in as many weeks.

Top and shorts by Les Copains, shoes by Miu Miu, bracelet by Sonia Rykiel

I’d get mad at Elle for returning to that same pouty face, but this outfit is so ugly, I can’t really blame her for looking so glum. Those diapers shorts look like they were designed by Gretchen on Project Runway, which is about the worst insult I can give to anyone, and the blouse is just unflattering. It looks desperately thrown-together at the last minute, and let’s just say it, that’s a little too much leg for a thirteen-year-old girl to be showing. The varying shades of gold don’t work well with her skin tone. And I like the shoes, but not with this outfit.

Dress by Antonio Berardi

Well, this I love. The shape of this dress is just fabulous, the details are intriguing (the distressed-looking sides, the collar, the sleeves hitting midway between her elbow and her wrist), and I’m a sucker for over-teased hair. (It’s not my fault – I am from Jersey, after all.

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© Democracy Diva, 2011.

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