What was Myer thinking choosing Paris for face of Melbourne Cup

PARIS Jackson copped a lot of flak for her appearance as the face of Myer at the Melbourne Cup. But it wasn’t her fault.

OPINION

She’s a 19-year-old kid with a history of mental illness and a backstory as heartbreaking as it is bizarre.

So why on earth did Myer choose Paris Jackson as its key international guest for the Melbourne Cup?

None of it makes sense.

She’s not a renowned racegoer. She previously had no connection with Australia. And her vibe is more hippie activist than high society champagne sipper.

We can only assume that Myer saw her more as a headline than a human being.

The reporting since yesterday’s cup has painted Jackson as petulant and careless but surely it’s the retail giant that’s irresponsible for choosing her in the first place.

Paris Jackson, model and daughter of the late Michael Jackson, arrives at Flemington. Picture: Andy Brownbill/AP

So she made a face. Teenagers do — particularly when they’re uncomfortable or in an unfamiliar situation or bored out of their brains. Apparently she rejected the Alex Perry dress chosen for her.

Why wouldn’t she? It was a bloody freezing day in Melbourne and a long-sleeved dress in a stretchy fabric was clearly a more comfortable choice than the doubtless figure-hugging and skin-exposing Perry number.

In any case, Perry didn’t care. Jackson had worn one of his frocks on the cover of Stellar magazine last Sunday.

Indeed, he showed the grace that Myer lacked, tweeting that he’d loved meeting Jackson and that she was “more beautiful and genuine in person than I could imagine”.

It’s unclear who leaked the detail that Jackson chose to wear a Morrison dress and that she had to be steered away from wearing her cowboy boots and into more “appropriate” ankle boots.

Was Paris the right choice? Picture: Graham Denholm/Getty Images

But ultimately it’s Myer’s mistake for inviting her — not because she’s a “D-lister” with “tatts and piercings” as one commentator pointed out, but because she’s a vulnerable girl who has talked about her suicide attempts and the struggle to rebuild her life after her father’s death.

Jackson didn’t ask to be the daughter of a rock star and a mother she barely knew until recently. She didn’t ask to become the subject of international attention when her father died of a drug overdose in 2009. Likewise, she didn’t ask to be the victim of sexual assault, an experience she says she was subject to aged 14.

Anyone with even half a heart can see that she’s a girl who’s struggled to overcome the pain of a very weird life. As she told Rolling Stone magazine earlier this year: “They always say, ‘Time heals,’ but it really doesn’t. You just get used to it.”

Confessing to not one, but several suicide attempts, she revealed: “It was just self-hatred, low self-esteem, thinking that I couldn’t do anything right, not thinking I was worthy of living anymore.”

She continued: “I was doing a lot of things that 13, 14, 15-year-olds shouldn’t do. I tried to grow up too fast, and I wasn’t really that kind of a person.”

Paris Jackson with supermodel Lara Stone at Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup.

Granted, Jackson clearly agreed to attend the Melbourne Cup but Myer acted imprudently in asking her. Such companies are staffed by a raft of grown-ups. Surely someone had the courage to ask: “Are we sure this is a good idea?”

Much has been made of the reporting guidelines surrounding Jackson’s visit and while bizarre — she refused, for instance, to talk about her father — they reflect a girl still finding her own place in the world.

Stellar magazine worked deftly with the restrictions, revealing Jackson’s work with the Puerto Ricans in the wake of Hurricane Maria and reporting carefully on a young woman who is still very much a work in progress.

As she told the magazine: “We all make mistakes as humans … but it’s imperative to be able to own up to your mistakes and then grow from them. I’m still learning to do that. I’m learning a lot of things.”

Hopefully Myer has also learned something: that a broken girl trying to build a good life in the wake of tragedy is not corporate fodder.

News.com.au has reached out to Myer for comment.