L'Oréal Just Announced Its Newest Brand Ambassador — & She's 16 Years Old

For most of us, our teen years are reserved for high school drama and awkward beauty lessons (like learning how to create the perfect updo for prom, for starters). But for 16-year-old Thylane Blondeau, things look a little different. In an Instagram post celebrating the model’s birthday today, L’Oréal announced Blondeau as its newest brand ambassador for the Hydra Genius campaign. (Quite the "Sweet 16" present, if we do say so ourselves.)

And get ready to hear that name a lot more. The French model, who's quickly climbing up the ranks in the beauty business, currently boasts 1 million Instagram followers and recently shot a spring-summer 2017 campaign for Dolce & Gabbana with Zendaya. L'Oréal has taken notice, too, and has been hinting at the partnership for months. Blondeau even posted sneak peek images to her own Facebook fan page with captions like “Getting ready with L'Oréal.” But it wasn’t until today when L'Oréal made the announcement that it was official.

"Thylane is a voice for a generation that spends more time connecting to each other than any generation before it, sharing images more than words," Pierre-Emmanuel Angeloglou, the global brand president for L’Oréal, said in a statement. She will be joining the likes of Karlie Kloss, Blake Lively, and Eva Longoria.

The young model responded with her own statement: “Now I am turning 16, working alongside beauty talents and spokespersons I’ve long admired, is the best gift ever! L’Oréal Paris is truly a brand where I feel I can be myself, defending values that matter for me such as self-confidence and self-esteem. And the adventure is just getting started.”