What 18 Children Wore to the Oscars
Beasts of the Southern Wild’s 9-year-old star Quvenzhané Wallis faces a formidable challenge on Sunday. The youngest-ever nominee for the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, the puppy purse enthusiast needs not only to maintain composure, but to look appropriate in a black-tie environment while she does it. Wallis recently fretted, “fashion is my kryptonite,” and worried about tripping on a gown. So what should a 9-year-old wear on the Oscars red carpet? We’ve asked that question before, looking at designers’ kid-size clothing lines. This time around, we look at history, from tween Angelina’s lace, to Shirley Temple’s ruffles, to young Judy Garland’s furs.
Abigail Breslin, 10 Nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2006's Little Miss Sunshine, Breslin was the fourth 10-year-old to be nominated...
Abigail Breslin, 10 Nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 2006's Little Miss Sunshine, Breslin was the fourth 10-year-old to be nominated for that award. She wore a gown by custom bridal designer Simin with Harry Winston jewels, and carried a Swarovski clutch.
Photo: Corbis
Anna Paquin, 11 The second-youngest actress ever to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in 1993's The Piano, Paquin wor...
Anna Paquin, 11 The second-youngest actress ever to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her work in 1993's The Piano, Paquin wore a floppy sapphire beanie that we can only assume was the height of tween girl style at the time. She is pictured here with the year's other acting winners: Tom Hanks, Tommy Lee Jones, and The Piano co-star Holly Hunter.
Photo: Steve Starr/Corbis
Angelina Jolie, 12 Attending as the guest of father and Best Actor nominee Jon Voight, Angelina wore white lace dress with exaggerated shoulders ...
Angelina Jolie, 12 Attending as the guest of father and Best Actor nominee Jon Voight, Angelina wore white lace dress with exaggerated shoulders and draped herself in pearls. Voight was nominated for 1985's The Runaway Train, but who cares about him? Let's obsess more about Angelina. She's channeling Virgin-era Madonna in this outfit, right?
Photo: Ron Galella/Getty Images
Shirley Temple, 6 In a frilly white dress and her signature ringlets, Shirley Temple collected an Academy Juvenile Award in 1934. Invented in 192...
Shirley Temple, 6 In a frilly white dress and her signature ringlets, Shirley Temple collected an Academy Juvenile Award in 1934. Invented in 1929 to celebrate 9-year-old acting prodigy Jackie Cooper, the "Oscarette" is a now-defunct honorary award that the Academy deployed sporadically. Its most recent use was in 1960, when it went to Pollyanna actress Hayley Mills.
Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Haley Joel Osment, 11 Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 1999's The Sixth Sense, Osment wore the world's tiniest tux. He lost the award to T...
Haley Joel Osment, 11 Nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 1999's The Sixth Sense, Osment wore the world's tiniest tux. He lost the award to The Cider House Rules' Michael Caine.
Photo: Corbis
Drew Barrymore, 8 Barrymore and her mother Jaid wore matching marabou to the 55th Academy Awards, when 1982's E.T. had several nominations. ...
Drew Barrymore, 8 Barrymore and her mother Jaid wore matching marabou to the 55th Academy Awards, when 1982's E.T. had several nominations. Drew and Jaid have a tempestuous relationship. Drew says her mother took her to Studio 54 and exposed her to drugs as a pre-teen. Eight months after Drew appeared in Playboy, Jaid did, too.
Photo: Ron Galella/WireImage
Keisha Castle-Hughes, 13 Nominated for Best Actress for 2003's Whale Rider, Castle-Hughes wore a crystal-studded whale barette behind her left ea...
Keisha Castle-Hughes, 13 Nominated for Best Actress for 2003's Whale Rider, Castle-Hughes wore a crystal-studded whale barette behind her left ear. (Click to zoom!) She lost the award to Charlize Theron. In 2006, Castle-Hughes drew further accolades for her performance as the Virgin Mary in Nativity — and then shocked the world by announcing that she was pregnant. She gave birth one month after her seventeenth birthday. She continues to act today in New Zealand and Australia.
Photo: Corbis
Jodie Foster, 14 "I am not Honey Boo Boo Child," Jodie Foster said in this year's conflicted Golden Globes speech. The casual T-shirt a...
Jodie Foster, 14 "I am not Honey Boo Boo Child," Jodie Foster said in this year's conflicted Golden Globes speech. The casual T-shirt and jumper she wore to her first Oscars, as a Best Supporting Actress nominee for 1976's Taxi Driver, underscores that point.
Photo: Getty Images
Brooke Shields, 13 and 15 (with Michael Jackson) As a presenter at the Oscars in 1979, 13-year-old Brooke Shields dressed like an angel, in a loo...
Brooke Shields, 13 and 15 (with Michael Jackson) As a presenter at the Oscars in 1979, 13-year-old Brooke Shields dressed like an angel, in a loose white dress and a flower-laced updo. She met future boyfriend Michael Jackson that night: "I went to the Academy Awards with Diana Ross and this girl walks up to me and says 'Hi, I'm Brooke Shields,'" Jacko once explained. "Man, we exchanged numbers and I was up all night, singing, spinning around my room, just so happy." Shields returned to the Oscars two years later with a then-23-year-old Jacko, whose tuxedo shirt had sequins and a zipper. Click to zoom in!
Photo: Ron Galella
Mary Badham, 10 Immortalized in a boyish bowlcut in 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird, Badham wore a girly headband and charm bracelet to the Oscars, ...
Mary Badham, 10 Immortalized in a boyish bowlcut in 1962's To Kill a Mockingbird, Badham wore a girly headband and charm bracelet to the Oscars, which she attended as a Best Supporting Actress nominee. Seated here with co-star Gregory Peck, Badham ultimately lost out to another child star: 16-year-old Miracle Worker actress Patty Duke.
Photo: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images
Patty Duke, 16 Duke won Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Helen Keller in 1962's The Miracle Worker. She wore a strapless floral gow...
Patty Duke, 16 Duke won Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Helen Keller in 1962's The Miracle Worker. She wore a strapless floral gown to the Awards. She is pictured with child acting prodigy Brandon deWilde, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at age 11. (He lost to Frank Sinatra.) For an Oscars party at the Hilton Hotel, Duke accessorized with a pet chihuahua named Bambi, setting a high bar for future Hilton Hotel chihuahua deployments. Eat your heart out, Paris.
Hailee Steinfeld, 14 Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2010's True Grit, insta-it-girl Steinfeld wore a blush-colored Marchesa gown ...
Hailee Steinfeld, 14 Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2010's True Grit, insta-it-girl Steinfeld wore a blush-colored Marchesa gown with Fred Leighton jewelry and a Ferragamo clutch and heels. Steinfeld ultimately lost the award to The Fighter's Melissa Leo.
Photo: David Crane/Corbis
Saoirse Ronan, 13 Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2007's Atonement, Ronan walked the Oscars red carpet in an Alberta Ferretti dress. Ti...
Saoirse Ronan, 13 Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2007's Atonement, Ronan walked the Oscars red carpet in an Alberta Ferretti dress. Tilda Swinton won Best Supporting Actress that year, for Michael Clayton.
Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown, 6 Two weeks after her sixth birthday in 1993, Bobbi Kristina Brown walked the Oscars red carpet with mo...
Whitney Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown, 6 Two weeks after her sixth birthday in 1993, Bobbi Kristina Brown walked the Oscars red carpet with mother Whitney Houston. Whitney presented an award and performed "When You Believe" with Mariah Carey. The song was featured in The Prince of Egypt, and won the award for Best Original Song.
Photo: Jim Smeal/WireImage
Judy Garland, 17, and Mickey Rooney, 19 For their co-starring roles in 1939's Babes in Arms, Rooney was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and J...
Judy Garland, 17, and Mickey Rooney, 19 For their co-starring roles in 1939's Babes in Arms, Rooney was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Judy Garland was awarded an Academy Juvenile Award. Her fur jacket has "garlands" on it, tee hee. Garland lost her trophy, which the Oscars replaced; after her death, the memento was at the center of a tempestuous legal battle.
Photo: Corbis
Leonardo DiCaprio, 19 Before he was a "Pussy Posse" ladykiller, Leo was just a skinny kid in tux at the 66th Academy Awards, when he wa...
Leonardo DiCaprio, 19 Before he was a "Pussy Posse" ladykiller, Leo was just a skinny kid in tux at the 66th Academy Awards, when he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 1993's What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Check out that ring. Click to zoom in on his finely groomed hands.
Photo: Barry King/WireImage
Tatum O'Neal, 39 and 10 The child-sized tuxedo that Tatum O'Neal wore to collect her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1973's Paper Mo...
Tatum O'Neal, 39 and 10 The child-sized tuxedo that Tatum O'Neal wore to collect her Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1973's Paper Moon "was her idea," designer Nolan Miller has said. "Her father was dating Bianca Jagger, who wore lots of suits. Tatum was in awe of her." She is pictured at right with presenters Jill Ireland and Charles Bronson. At left, O'Neal attends the Oscars in 2003 with her own young daughter.
Jaden Smith, 8 As an Oscars presenter, Jaden Smith wore a tux and stood beside nominee Abigail Breslin. On the red carpet he accessorized with a ...
Jaden Smith, 8 As an Oscars presenter, Jaden Smith wore a tux and stood beside nominee Abigail Breslin. On the red carpet he accessorized with a Rubiks Cube. Father Will Smith was nominated for 2006's The Pursuit of Happyness that year.
Photo: Getty Images
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