Growing up fast . Nikki Webster is older than she looks – but at this stage her mum is drawing the line at a belly ring.

By Brett Thomas

A leading theatre producer has warned child star Nikki Webster not to grow up too quickly.

John Frost, one-third of the production team behind the $4million musical The Wizard Of Oz, in which Webster is starring as Dorothy, said: “I think she’s better off staying as a kid.

“When you think of the old days and child stars like Judy Garland, it all seems to turn sour.”

Frost said there would have been no Wizard Of Oz without Webster as Dorothy.

“She’s certainly flavour of the year,” he said. “Every little 13-year-old kid would love to be Nikki Webster.

She has a great voice, her dancing ability is great and she has a presence. When she walks on to the stage it lights up.

“She will come to a crossroads when she has to decide whether she wants to be a pop star or a musical theatre performer and it will probably happen in the next two or three years.”

But Webster, star of the Sydney Olympic Games Opening and Closing ceremonies, wants people to acknowledge her as a teenager, not the cute little girl people fell in love with in September last year.

So the Nikki Webster we’ve been seeing lately has been wearing make-up and trendy midriff tops and singing about sending strawberry kisses to a boy.

Her mother, Tina, said: “I think people look at her and because she is so small they go, ‘Oh, but is she 14?’

“So she needs to dress as a 14-year-old, she needs to be the same as her peers.

“She has got to grow up and I suppose because she does look young people sort of go, ‘Oh, she’s too young.'”

It’s a belief shared by Webster’s manager Lisa Hamilton and Nicole Hart, national publicist, local and strategic, for her parent record company BMG.

“I think it would be really irresponsible of us to make Nikki retain a little girl image when she is 14 going on 15,” Hamilton said.

Webster, who won the Mo award, still looks at least four years younger than her age. Without any media training, she already speaks like an entertainment industry veteran.

“It’s just gone so quickly, the whole year,” she said of the whirlwind 10 months since she came to sudden international recognition.

“I’ve been given so many fantastic opportunities with the single [Strawberry Kisses] out and the album later this year and then just going to different functions and going to Thailand and China.”

Strawberry Kisses, which was classified platinum last week with sales of more than 70,000, drew raised eyebrows not only for Webster’s new look on the video clip but for lyrics that some thought suggested lustful thoughts for a boy.

“A strawberry kiss is a blow kiss so it’s a friendship kiss,” she explained.

The album, Follow Your Heart, will be released on August 20 and Webster is to star in a movie called Vanilla Gorilla, which will be filmed in South Africa.

“My idols are Kylie Minogue and Olivia Newton-John because they’ve been around for such a long time,” she said.

But mum still has the last say.

“I think if she wanted to have a belly ring I’d have a few things to say about it,” Mrs Webster said. “Like, No.”

Source: smh.com.au