NEWS

07/11/2014

Plucked from obscurity, a 17-year-old Belgian girl has just scored a lucrative modelling contract after a photo of her cheering for her team at the World Cup went viral across the world. 

No longer just a face in the crowd, Axelle Despiegelaere has signed a contract to become one of the stars of a global cosmetics brand.

Riding a wave of popularity after the photo of her in the stands was picked up on Twitter, Ms Despiegelaere set up a Facebook fan page which amassed over 200,000 likes in little over a week. It follows hot on the heels of otherwise unknown ridiculously photogenic people who have been propelled by social media to internet stardom.

However, Despiefelaere has been revealed as a big fan of game hunting. Her public success may be short lived as now a photo has emerged of the teenager posing with a rifle and a dead animal in Africa.

'Hunting is not a matter of life or death. It's much more important than that,' she said on her Facebook page reported The Sydney Morning Herald.  

L'Oreal has not responded to the revelations, but it is keen to promote it's image of animal welfare - in 2012 the company donated $1.2million to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to help improve the testing of safe chemicals. 

In the photo which scored Axelle her contract she donned red, yellow and black face paint and a horned hat when she was spotted at the match in Brazil.

Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Mail Australia

Image: in2eastafrica.net

By: J. Kinnen