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Girl's newfound fame is just for her

The 9-year-old's pretty hair and winning smile proved to be just that.

By AMBER MOBLEY
Published May 26, 2006

	[Times photo: Mike Pease]
	Dionnie Colon holds a box of Just for Me hair relaxer with her photo on it. She is one of four of the hair care product's new spokesmodels.

The older kids at Lockhart Elementary School know her name and the third-graders want to sit with her at lunch.

Brother Matthew says he has "a famous sister."

But Dionnie Colon's biggest fan is her daddy.

"This is her! This is my her!" Elias Colon tells strangers in the supermarket when he sees Dionnie's face on a box of Just for Me hair relaxer. "This is my daughter!" he tells strangers.

At 9, Dionnie is seeing her face on the pages of Essence, Jet and Black Hair magazines. She was chosen from among 200 little girls across the nation to represent the hair care product for the next seven years.

Her mother, Mary Colon of Carrollwood Meadows, describes Dionnie as "a girlie girl.''

But she's more of a prima ballerina than a prima donna. Dionnie loves dancing ballet and playing the violin and is actually a little shy about all the attention she's been getting.

"People say congratulations and I say thank you. They're happy for me," Dionnie said while smiling a wide grin, her beige-brown cheeks becoming slightly flushed.

Elias Colon even sported Mary Colon's "Spokesmodel Mom" T-shirt at work one day.

"He was upset about not having a dad shirt," Mary Colon said. "So, he ended up just wearing mine. We never expected him to wear it to work."

Nor did the Colon family ever expect Dionnie to win the contest. Entering Dionnie was a total happenstance.

Of Puerto Rican and black heritage, Dionnie started getting her naturally curly hair permanently relaxed a year ago.

While shopping for a relaxer, Mary Colon noticed an offer for a free camera on the front of the box of hair relaxer. When she got home and opened the box, there was also information about a spokesmodel contest.

Matthew, 10, took her picture. Mary mailed off the entry form and the paperwork for the free camera.

She didn't think much else about it until weeks later, when the camera came in the mail and Pro-Line, the relaxer manufacturer, notified them that Dionnie had won.

Dionnie's picture made all the difference, said Tiffanie Jones, brand manager of Soft & Beautiful.

"Her smile just lit up," said Jones. "You wonder has she been doing this her whole life."

Dionnie will work with Pro-Line for the next seven years, with the company paying all expenses for her promotional tours. Dionnie also gets a year's supply of Just for Me hair products.

So far, she said, it's been a ball - especially going to the flagship store of Toys "R" Us in New York City's Times Square as part of the product tour.

But the end of Dionnie's spokesmodeling contract won't be the end of modeling for her. The Colons are looking to find an agent for her.

Despite all of the attention, "Dionnie," said Mary Colon, "is still Dionnie."

Amber Mobley can be reached at (813) 269-5311 or amobley@sptimes.com.

[Last modified May 25, 2006, 16:02:59]