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Riverhead’s own Huggies baby hits the shelves

TIM GANNON PHOTO | Two-year-old Isabella Blassingame of Riverhead, seen here with her mother Orleatra Banks, is featured on the cover of Huggies diapers packages on shelves now.

Riverhead’s littlest model has just gone big-time.

Two-year-old Isabella Blassingame, the daughter of Orleatra Banks and John Blassingame of Riverhead, now appears on Huggies diapers packages on sale across the U.S.

She’s on the size 5, “snug and dry” diapers.

Isabella, or Bella, as her mother calls her, posed for the diaper company last summer and the package with her face on it finally hit the shelves about a month ago.

“I went to the store and bought a box immediately,” the proud mom said. “I was crying. We’ve been waiting almost a year for this.”

Ms. Banks said friends and relatives from all over the country have been contacting her about the photos.

“Everybody is taking pictures of it and sending them to my Facebook,” she said. “One friend bought them and said ‘I’m giving away free diapers, but I want to keep the box.’”

The Huggies package is Bella’s biggest gig so far, but it’s far from her only modeling job. She’s also been seen in Toys R Us and Babies R Us circulars and has done a number of other photo shoots as well, her mom said.

Bella gets paid for the shoots and even has an agent, Ms. Banks said. Her mom entered her in some pageants when she was 11 months old, and that’s how she got noticed and landed the other modeling jobs.

Ms. Banks also had done modeling and even television roles when she was young, and used the money she made to pay for college, something she hopes her daughter will be able to do as well.

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