She's behind you! Little sisters are stealing the limelight

Bee-stung lips? Check. Tumbling locks? Check. Feline eyes? Coltish legs? Check, check, check. Am I describing the luminous Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Victoria’s Secret Angel, Burberry model, actress and girlfriend of Jason Statham (with an Olivier Martinez-shaped notch on her bedpost)? No, I am not. The newest beauty to set the Twittersphere aflutter is her little sister Florence, 19, a first-year student at Leeds.

As one of preppy fashion label Jack Wills’ ‘Seasonnaires’, she will tweet, post on Facebook, host the odd promotional event and do a little modelling. Admittedly, Jack Wills isn’t quite up there with Loewe and Prada, for whom ‘Rosebud’ (as Florence calls her) has walked, and Rosie, 25, is also starring in the remake of Mad Max with Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, but Florence has time on her side and who knows to what dizzying heights that pout and those pins will propel her.

Another little sister blessed with symmetrical features and a talent for the limelight is Olympia Campbell, 15, sister of Edie, 21. While Edie models for Stella McCartney, Burberry and Hermès, Olympia has starred in an enigmatic and beautiful short film, The Lost Explorer, directed by fashion photographer and Vogue favourite Tim Walker and commissioned by Mulberry. However, unlike the H-Ws who appear to be cut from the same cloth, sultry, supercilious Edie, who has admitted in the past that she emits an ‘apparent chill, an unnecessary scariness’, is a world away from Olympia who still sucks her thumb and gets told off at school for giggling.

So, all hail the younger sister. She’s probably just as pretty, takes life a lot less seriously and reaps the benefit of senior’s hard-won contacts. At this point, I should declare an interest: I, too, am a younger sister. What’s more, while neither of us has, so far, bagged a Burberry campaign, I did follow my sister into journalism and I have benefited from her help, experience and contacts. She’s put me in the way of work, written for me, given me stories and generally behaved like a good big sister should. Just like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, 26, who I’m sure give a helping hand to Elizabeth, 23, even though her acting career is rapidly outgunning theirs — and those Kardashians are always looking out for each other.

It’s no surprise that a little sister may find her path to fame a little shorter, a little less rocky, thanks to a pacemaker who puffs and pants up the hills, letting the real star of the show slipstream behind only to overtake in the final moments. A younger sister is a fresh face, but somehow comfortingly familiar — alliances have already been forged between the family, fashion houses and photographers, and column inches are guaranteed while we all play the invidious comparison game: which of the sisters is taller, sexier, prettier?

Of course, the patron saint of little sisters everywhere is Pippa Middleton who turned the role of bridesmaid into the most spectacular upstaging of all time. Sadly, though, she’s gone quiet while waiting to launch her party planning book (advance: a cool £400,000) in time for Christmas. Not to worry. We may have to wait a while for the next instalment of Middleton fever but there are still plenty of other little sisters showing us how it’s done.

Hard on the heels of upper-crust Poppy Delevingne, 25, who has modelled for Chloé, Balenciaga and Vuitton and starred in campaigns for Jigsaw, Mango and Anya Hindmarch, comes the girl whom Vogue called the ‘star face’ of last London Fashion Week: little sister Cara, 19, whose heavy-browed directness has found favour with Burberry, Dolce & Gabbana and Mario Testino. Cara has since been ousted from her Burberry campaign role by yet another little sister — Gabriella Wilde (real name Anstruther-Gough-Calthorpe). Once upon a time, her older half-sister Isabella, 32, was an up-and-coming actress and the object of Prince William’s affections. Now she’s engaged to Virgin heir Sam Branson and still acting, but it’s Gabriella, 23, who’s starring in the Hollywood remake of Carrie with Julianne Moore later this year.

Little sisters with serious showbiz pedigree are even more popular, as evidenced by Georgia May Jagger, 20. For while her older sister Lizzie, 28, has got Jerry Hall’s cheekbones, Georgia May scooped the gene jackpot with Mick’s lips. Peaches Geldof, 23, has had a torrid time in the tabloids that appears (temporarily at least) to have been halted by motherhood, but Pixie, 22, with her peroxide hair and fierce stare, is an altogether more polished product and has struck a pose for everyone from Westwood to Agent Provocateur. No doubt Peaches is there to offer advice on what not to do.

Don’t blame them for riding on their big sisters’ coat-tails. With the economy in a state, and the job market collapsing, how else is a young girl going to find a job?