Blue Ivy Carter, who voices Kiara in Mufasa: The Lion King, attended the film’s premiere with her parents, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, on December 9. At the premiere, Blue Ivy, who is 12, wore a strapless metallic gown designed by Christian Siriano. The designer said Blue Ivy looked like a “goddess” in the dress, and some people compared her red carpet look to that of a princess. Others, however, were concerned that the dress wasn’t age-appropriate.
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Christian Siriano shared a video of Blue Ivy wearing the gown on Instagram.
“Blue you look like a goddess and we loved making this for you!! 🤎🤎🤎🤎” the designer captioned his post. In the comments, some said that Blue looked “amazing.”
But others questioned why Christian designed that particular dress for a 12-year-old girl.
“Gorgeous gown, but my god, she’s 12. TWELVE,” one person commented. Another fan wrote, “What is the rush to age a child? She is not even a teenager. That dress could have been more youthful, age appropriate for a 12-year-old, and if someone could have done it, it was Christian, disappointing.”
Some people questioned Beyoncé and Jay-Z's parenting.
Given that Blue Ivy is only 12 years old, some social media users wondered why her parents would let her wear a low-cut strapless dress.
“I have a daughter her age and there’s no way I’d be allowing cleavage and heels,” one person wrote on X. Another person on the platform wrote that it’s “too early to put these kids in strapless dresses,” while another said it was “not how a 12-yr-old should be dressed.”
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At the same time, some people argued that Blue's outfit was appropriate for the occasion.
Those who jumped to Blue Ivy’s defense reminded the naysayers that Blue was at a red carpet event. “She looks stunning and is a lovely tween. She was dressed appropriately for a red carpet event,” one person wrote on X.
Another fan wrote, “I think she looks nice. She’s fully covered, she looks classy. What do you think 12-year-olds should wear to very formal occasions? Dungarees?”
One fan compared Blue’s dress to princess costumes that young girls wear. “Theres literally princess dress up dresses made like this that little girls run around in,” the person wrote. “Kids dressed like snow white have these same shaped dresses. The issue is YOU sexualizing it rather than letting a child be a child.”
Another person shared that the dress was “no different than (what) any girl her age would wear to a formal dance at school.”
'Stop sexualizing her.'
As the debate about Blue Ivy’s dress continued, one person pointed to the controversy as a sign that “people (majority yt) tend to over-sexualize & adultify black girls,” adding, “She cannot help having cleavage & going through puberty a bit early. I dealt the exact same.”
Another person wrote that Blue Ivy’s parents can’t control that either. “It’s not their fault she hit puberty,” the person wrote on X.
Actress Christina Milian defended Blue Ivy.
While on Sherri Shepherd’s talk show, Sherri, Christina Milian said Blue Ivy “looks gorgeous.” Additionally, she encouraged those who feel the need to make comments about “someone else’s daughter, any minor” to “just mind your business.”
Sharing her own opinion on the dress, Sherri said she “had to disagree” with people who think Blue Ivy’s dress was “too much.” Instead, Sherri thought the tween looked “like a fairy princess.”
