Norway 'Child Bride' Sparks Outrage As 12-Year-Old's Wedding Blog Goes Viral

Pre-Teen's 'Wedding Blog' Makes For Difficult Reading...
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This is Thea. She is 12 years old, and will this week be married to Geir, who is 37.

She is to be Norway’s official first child bride, according to her wedding blog which has received over half a million readers, according to The Independent.

On her blog, Theas Bryllup ('Thea's Wedding' in Norwegian), the pre-teen writes that her mother has told her she must marry Geir on 11 October.

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Thea's wedding blog is currently the most-read blog in Norway

Thea has been documenting the countdown to her wedding and posts selfies of herself, snaps of her testing out wedding cakes.

She learns that she will stop going to school once she is a wife, and will be expected to soon have children with her future husband.

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Thea and Geir will marry in a few days according to the blog

Hundreds of concerned readers commented on the blog, and asked Thea if she was really going to marry the 37-year-old.

Many contacted the police in Norway, and the hashtag #stoppbryllupet (stop the wedding) trended on Twitter as people voiced their alarm.

One of Thea's blog posts contains the realisation that she may soon have to give birth to children, after her mother tells her off writing: "She was pissed and said I had to stop and act like one child now that I will soon have my own family and take care of."

"What she meant by that exactly? Thinks she want me to get my own children soon? I know that it is normal when you get married to especially if you have sex and stuff.”

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Thea in a bakery trying cakes for her wedding

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Showing her engagement ring

In another post, a smiling Thea celebrates when she finds out she won't have to go to school once she is married to Geir 25 years her senior.

“Today I just tell you right away today then something happened insane!" Thea writes. "My mom said that I should marry Geir I will not go to school longer! For Geir's supposed to fit in and give me what I need and so I need not really have to work so much.”

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Trying on wedding makeup

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In a wedding dress shop

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Thea at home

Happily, Thea is not really a child bride.

The blog is actually a clever stunt from children’s development charity Plan International, aiming to raise awareness of the fact that 39,000 children around the world are forced into marriage every day.

If the practice continues, 142 million girls marry before they are 18 over the next decade, according to the charity.

And Thea's blog includes blog posts by girls who really were married off at a young age, including 11-year-old Ranya from Bangladesh, and 15-year-old Latifa from Tanzania.

The campaign has started a national petition in Norway against child marriage, to "stop" Thea's wedding before it takes place on 11 October, the UN's International Day of the Girl Child.

Photos of Thea trying on a wedding dress are "provocative, but they are certainly hard to ignore," according to parenting site ParentDish.

Plan International said: "We believe that provocation is a powerful tool in order to demonstrate a reality that truly is very provoking. We hope people will mobilise against child marriage by being girl sponsors, so that most of the girls facing Thea’s situation every day can escape their brutal fate."