Farrah Abraham Defends Letting Her 7-Year-Old Wear Makeup To School

Should little girls be allowed to wear makeup? It’s a divisive question, and Teen Mom alum Farrah Abraham is currently at the center of a heated debate around it after posting modeling pictures of her 7-year-old daughter, Sophia, wearing a bikini and makeup. Predictably, the internet didn't let the photos slide by. Now, the reality star has addressed the controversy head-on in an interview with the podcast Allegedly, as Wetpaint reports. Between fielding skeevy questions (listen at your own risk — you may need a shower after), Abraham answered this one about the makeup controversy: “You got a little flak when you put some makeup on [your daughter] and took her picture. What’s your response to that?”

She had a lot to say. “Oh god, makeup. When your kids are 5 or 6, they already start playing with makeup. And I was the only mother in freakin’ elementary school getting called in to talk about makeup on [my] daughter. So I said to them, 'Then you should take off your makeup. If little girls come into school wearing makeup, then don’t wear makeup.' And ever since I’ve seen that principal, she hasn’t had makeup on her face. Don’t ever criticize a parent for the discovery and the imagination of someone who’s little.” Principal drama aside, research has shown that it’s natural for children at that age to model behavior they observe in adults, even when that behavior is irrelevant to their lives — like wearing makeup. The long-term effects of such modeling are a hot area of research for psychologists.

Abraham threw in a big-picture perspective, saying, “It’s like, honestly, forget makeup. I have bigger shit to deal with in my family when my daughter’s wondering about how do we die, and what’s death, and where’s her dad, and where did he go?” She continued, “I have bigger shit to deal with than just makeup on someone’s face. So I feel like if someone calls me in and wants to blame me for the whole student body wearing makeup? Cool. I’m the parent to call in. 'Cause I will deal with it. Every child experiments with makeup.” Like it or not, it looks like we’ll be seeing more of Sophia gussied up on Instagram (she has her own account, after all) — public outcry be damned. Where do you stand on this issue? Tell us in the comments.