Full Name:
Thylane Léna-Rose Loubry Blondeau
Nickname:
T, Lani
Her name is pronounced as Tee-Lann (with the "a" sounding like the "a" in "father"). Because people often butcher the pronunciation of her name, she often goes by T or Lani as a nickname.
Birthday:
April 5th
Age:
17
Sexual Orientation:
Unsure
Title:
The Overexposed
Personal Life
Family Life:
Thylane was born in Aix-en-Provence, a city commune in the south of France, to Patrick Blondeau and Véronika Loubry. Four years after she was born, her parents had another child, Ayrton-Romeø Blondeau. Her father was a professional soccer player, and her mother dabbled in acting, fashion and photography. While the Blondeaus were never poor, it is worth noting that Thylane wasn't raised in a family that was filthy rich. Combined, her parents' net worths were worth a couple million dollars, and given their spending habits, they fell into the class of people who constantly had to work to maintain their lifestyle. Neither of her parents could be considered celebrities, as they were never superstars in their field of work, so in regards to that, Thylane's childhood was normal. Her parents were her parents, and they were never important enough to be chased by paparazzi to an extent where she would see their jobs as being any different from a businessman or a nurse.
What set Thylane's childhood apart from most was that her mother lived through her vicariously... and to an extreme. The woman had always had an obsession with fame and recognition, and once she decided that she would be unable to reach stardom herself, she turned her focus of that on to her daughter. Thylane was thrust into the world of modelling at age four, when she began walking in runway shows. From then on, it seemed like any and every photo shoot or modelling opportunity that was offered to her, her mother accepted. By the time that she was seven, it became apparent that the schedule that her mother wanted her to have would not coincide with the public school schedule she had, so she was pulled from school and homeschooled. At first, Thylane found modelling to be a bit boring, but it wasn't something that she hated. She was young enough to believe every word that her mother said, about how she was going to be so famous some day, that they wouldn't even be able to walk into the supermarket without seeing her face on magazines. Everyone would know her, and everyone would love her. What child would disagree with the idea that being loved was a good thing? And so she went to the photo shoots, and didn't ask about why all of their neighbors had time to run and play outside while her mother was forcing her to be still for more head shots, and things were fine for a few years.
She had been doing well as a child model for those years, yes, but her big "break" came at the age of ten, when she was booked to shoot for Vogue. At ten years old, she was still an innocent child. The idea of dressing up and putting on fancy clothes and makeup that was excessive for a child only seemed fun for her, like she was playing dress up. With her mother in her ear, telling her that she looked like a princess ready to star in the next Disney movie, the idea of the shoot only excited her. When she actually started shooting, though, she was far less enthused. It was basically an adult shoot, with the way that she was dressed and made up. The makeup artists and stylists were used to working with adults, and while many of them were nice, it was a new and scary experience for Thylane. Throw in the fact that her mother was off schmoozing, no where to be found for the majority of it, and she felt absolutely alone. That was why, when one of the production assistants for the shoot took her into a side room, claiming that he needed someone to touch up her makeup, and he molested her instead, she had no one there to stop it. And it petrified her, just as one would expect. She told her mother as soon as they left the shoot, and while one would imagine a loving parent would immediately call the police (or make a u-turn and go and kill the person themselves), Véronika did quite the opposite. She claimed that Thylane was lying, that she was being dramatic and making up stories. She started crying about all of the hard work that she had put into her daughter's career, how much she had sacrificed for her and how much of her attention she "stole" compared to her brother, and she told Thylane that if she repeated the "lie" to her father, she would destroy their family. It was a horrific position for a ten year old to be in, especially given that she was expected to return back to the shoot the next day for the final day of shooting. She knew that what had happened to her was not normal, and that she wasn't lying or being dramatic, but she also was petrified of the idea of destroying her own family, and so she apologized and kept her mouth quiet for the rest of the weekend.
Following that photo shoot, however, her interest in modelling dwindled quickly. She didn't like the idea of touching up, or posing for photos. She didn't want people to look at her anymore, nonetheless touch her, and of course, this enraged her fame-hungry mother. Thylane participated in a handful of forced photo shoots after the Vogue campaign, but she was lucky that by the time she was really hitting her breaking point, the Vogue shoot (1, 2, 3)was published, and the amount of controversy it caused brought a firestorm of critics upon her mother. Their adult voices spoke criticism that her silenced, ten-year-old one could not, and among those critics was her own father, who had remained as distant from the modelling his daughter partook in as possible. He had no idea what his wife was getting her involved in, and seeing his daughter published in photos online that were attracting hoards of pedophile men making lude comments was what led to a lot of animosity between he and his wife, and eventually, their divorce.
Their was never a custody war between her parents, and after her daughter "sabotaged" their family, Veronika was content with her daughter living with her father, while she kept custody of their son. Thylane's father eventually moved to New York, where he obtained a business job after ending his soccer career. She's been living with his in New York since she was thirteen years old, and it's a move she hasn't regretted for a second. Although she's escaped that life she used to have, the internet exists, and it drives her mad to think that all it takes is one google search for her past to continue to haunt her. Maybe had she not had to experience the firsthand horrors of the child modelling world, she wouldn't feel so bitter about it, but that one day was all it took to damage her for life. She kept one promise to her mother, and that was to never repeat that she was molested, but had her father tried to leave her in the custody of her mother, and Thylane knows that she would have had to tell him, just as a final, desperate plea to keep him from leaving her there.
Academic Career:
Thylane was admitted to Constance Billard for her academic testing scores. She is a full scholarship student.
Future Plans:
She just recently got American citizenship, after living here on only a green card, so she's excited to remain in the states for the foreseeable future. She definitely plans on attending a university in the country, and though she adores New York and many of the schools here, she's also considering studying in California or Florida. The exact school, and the exact major, are unconfirmed details at the moment.
Disposition
Words most often used to describe Thylane would probably be quiet, intelligent, thoughtful and curious. Growing up, she had always been more exuberant and friendly than she is now. She was very free-spirited and innocent in that sense, where she didn't care about watering down her personality for the sake of others comfort. It was something she grew out of (or was maybe even forced out of), once she realized that the real world wasn't filled with rainbows and butterflies and cupcakes. She lost a bit of innocence around this time, and though she's not the human version of Eeyore, she's definitely more reserved now than she was as a child. Silence is more comforting to her than words, a lot of the time, and she finds it unnecessary, and even difficult, to make conversation with people she doesn't know. With her friends, she isn't silent though. She does know how to talk and have fun, and when it comes down to it, she's actually very good at listening and giving advice to people. What stands true though, regardless of who she's with, is that she's not someone who would ever be described as outgoing or as a social butterfly.
Though her childhood was centered around her modelling career, Thylane did very well being homeschooled as well. The major reason for this, probably, was that her homeschool teacher was not her mother, but additionally, Thylane is naturally intelligent. She excelled as a child, and continues to do very well academically. She's fluent in both English and French, and has a penchant for math and science courses. Numbers make sense to her. She likes things like that, that take little thought. There's only one right answer, and that's it. It something that fits the mindset she lives in in her everyday life, too, because she despises the tendency that she has to overthink things. She doesn't mind hearing about other people's complex lives and their drama, but she doesn't like it in her own life. She likes things that are straight forward and easy to understand without analyzing or taking other people's feelings into account. It's a strange switch she has, where she actually enjoys getting her fix of emotion out of hearing about other people's problems and offering them advice, while she denies emotion in her own life.
Hobbies:
She's taken on baking as a recent hobby. She's no master chef, that's for sure, but she likes trying new recipes. Aside from that, she has no obsessions or major hobbies, but she loves spending time exploring New York. She's lived here for four years, and yet she still feels like she hasn't seen half of the city.
Bad Habits:
Isolating herself, cutting people off for small reasons, waiting too close to the edge of the platform for the subway
Likes:
Exploration, trying new foods, baking, Netflix, performers on the Subway and streets, her father and brother, the outdoors, math, dogs, skiing, Starbucks
Dislikes:
Elevators, boats, rainy days, people who follow trends just because they're popular and not because they really like them, when men touch her without permission, when her mother calls
Physical Description
Thylane Blondeau
Height:
5'6
Weight/Build:
115 lbs
Hair Color:
Brown
Eye Color:
Blue