About

Axelle Despiegelaere is a Belgian teenager who rose to fame online after being photographed in the crowd at a soccer game during the 2014 FIFA World Cup. After she was offered a modeling contract by the makeup company L'Oreal, the offer was rescinded when a photograph surfaced showing her standing over the corpse of a gazelle.

Online History

World Cup Photos

During the World Cup's group stages in July 2014, photographs of 17-year-old Belgian fan Axelle Despiegelaere began circulating via social media (shown below).

Following her return to Belgium, Despiegelaere created a Facebook fan page for herself which subsequently gained thousands of likes in the first week. The page has since been deleted.

Modeling Contract

On July 8th, Despiegelaere announced in a Facebook post that she had signed a modeling contract with L'Oreal (shown below).

Hunting Photo Controversy

On July 9th, The Daily Mail^[1] published an article about a photograph that had emerged of Despiegelaere standing over the corpse of an Oryx Gazelle (shown below).

On July 11th, BuzzFeed^[2] published an article titled "L'Oreal 'Drops' World Cup Teenage Model After Hunting Picture Controversy," which included a statement from a L'Oreal spokesperson who revealed the company is no longer working with the teenager:

"Axelle de Spiegelaere is not one of L’Oréal Professionnel’s spokespeople.
L’Oréal Professionnel Belgium collaborated with her on an ad hoc basis to produce a video for social media use in Belgium. This has now been produced."

Search Interest

External References