'My girl's only 12 but she's dieting"

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"My girl's only 12 but she's already dieting "

Monday 07 July 2008

Soya Keaveney, 12, diets and works out daily to be like her idol Cheryl Cole – and her mum’s backing her

In a desperate bid to burn calories, 12-year-old Soya Keaveney pounds a treadmill until she’s struggling for breath. The schoolgirl is so determined to fulfil her ambition to become a model that she keeps her 5st frame in shape by exercising every day.

To achieve her dream, Soya has even posed for provocative photos, which are posted on her own website for anyone to access. Wearing a skimpy bikini and flaunting herself in an overtly sexual manner, Soya looks every bit the wannabe glamour model.

Incredibly, Soya’s mum Janis has no problem with the photos – which were taken on a family holiday in Egypt – or with the extreme lengths her daughter is going to in order to achieve her ambition.

“Some people might think the pictures are raunchy, but I think she looks lovely,” says Janis, 45. “Hopefully, they’ll help raise her modelling profile. It’s all good practice, and she’s not showing anything you wouldn’t see on a beach.”

But Janis admits the pictures have led to inappropriate emails from older men. She says: “When strange men contact Soya through her website and make unsavoury suggestions, I just delete them.” Worryingly, she adds: “Although Soya’s had a few boyfriends, she’s still very naïve.”

Soya has wanted to be famous since she was eight years old, and after carefully studying her favourite celebs, including skinny singer Cheryl Cole from Girls Aloud, she decided that she was going to need a perfect figure to be successful. She immediately started counting calories and doing up to 200 sit-ups a day, and now she’s been signed up by Cheryl’s ex-modelling agency.

Soya tells Closer: “I’m terrified of getting fat. I want to be a model, a singer or an actress, and they’re hardly ever fat.
She adds: “I’d love to be like Cheryl. She’s gorgeous and has a glamourous lifestyle.”

Soya, who’s 4ft 6 tall, spends two hours a day exercising. At school she plays netball and rounders, and also takes part in lunchtime athletics sessions. In the evenings she has dance classes, and she still finds time to do 200 sit-ups a day and run for up to an hour on her mum’s treadmill.

“Soya’s so fit, she’s got a six-pack,” says proud mum Janis, who lives in Teeside and is also mum to daughtersCoco, 17, Ritzy, 15, and Soya’s twin brother Tarot. “It’s not like her regime is doing her any harm.”

Soya Keaveney

Despite her demanding keep-fit routine, Soya never eats breakfast, and often has just fruit for lunch and vegetable stir-fry for dinner. “I rarely eat sweets, but when I do, I make sure I burn off every single calorie on the treadmill,” she says.

Shockingly, Janis doesn’t seem worried about her daughter’s slimming obsession. “She must be eating enough,” she insists. “She’s happy and full of energy, and that would change if she wasn’t getting everything she needed.
“I don’t think she’d become anorexic – she thinks being a bag of bones is just as bad as being fat.”

Janis admits her own size 18 frame may be partly to blame for Soya’s strict eating habits. “She panics when she pigs out, because she’s worried she’s going to get fat like me,” says Janis. “But I think that’s good – I don’t want any of my kids to turn out like me. I’d die to have her figure.”

Single mum Janis has spent thousands of pounds on Soya’s singing and acting auditions, her dance classes and her trendy wardrobe. On average, it all costs Janis – who’s a full-time carer for disabled Tarot – up to £450 a month, paid for with tax credits, benefits and child support from her ex-husband. “I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the end,” says Janis. “She’s already had one modelling job.”

Soya never goes out without putting on eyeliner and mascara, although once at school she’s often told to remove it by her teachers. Shockingly, she also frequently wears padded bras, short skirts, cropped tops, high heels and fishnet tights.

She regularly attends clubs for under-18s, and spends hours getting ready with her fashion-conscious friends.
“I choose a lot of her clothes, and I don’t think they’re too grown up,” Janis says. "I’m very aware that older boys are interested in her – she told me she’d slapped a lad who groped her bum – but she only really dresses up when she’s going out. And I always drive her there and back, so I know she’s safe.”

By Victoria Raymond