Brooke Shields, a famous actress and model, was photographed by Gary Gross when she was just 10 years old in 1975.

The photographs show her posing n*d in a bathtub while wearing heavy makeup and no clothing.

The photographs were later published in the Playboy publication Sugar and Spice.

However, at the time of the shoot, Brooke was just a young girl with no understanding of the impact those photos would have on her life.

The photoshoot reportedly took place at the request of Brooke’s mother, Terri Shields, who had long hoped her daughter would become a star.

Terri had said after Brooke was born that she wanted to help her daughter with her career.

The photoshoot saw Brooke painted in heavy makeup and lipstick and covered in oil.

The 10-year-old was then directed to pose standing and sitting in a bathtub, with two images showing Brooke full-frontal and completely exposed.

Gross said in 2009 that the images weren’t meant to be pornographic, but conceded Brooke “was supposed to look like a sexy woman”.

The photos of Brooke were shot for Sugar and Spice, which was owned by Playboy but marketed as more artistic than its counterpart.

The publication included Brooke in 1976, printing two naked photos of her 10-year-old body, one splashed across a two-page spread.

The issue she appeared in reportedly also contained three other pages featuring photos of “nymphets”, defined as “attractively and sexually mature young girls”.

It’s unclear how old the girls in the other photos were. At the time the photos were published, Brooke was just a schoolgirl.

Two years later, she starred in her first feature film, and by 1980, she had gained international fame, starring on the cover of Vogue and in the film The Blue Lagoon, which featured substantial sexual content involving the then-14-year-old actress.

In 1981, Brooke’s mother took Gross to court to sue him for $1 million in damages over the n*d images of Brooke.

Terri argued that the photos could seriously harm her daughter’s career, and that Gross shouldn’t have been allowed to continue to profit from the images.

She had signed over any rights to the photos to Gross in 1975 when they were taken.

However, the New York State Supreme Court dismissed the lawsuit, Justice Edward Greenfield saying the photos were “not erotic or pornographic” except to “possibly perverse minds”.

Gross saw no issue with the photographs, saying in 2009, “It certainly doesn’t breach child pornography laws here because a judge said so. In order for it to be considered pornographic here, she would have to be doing something sensual or sexual, but she’s not.”

An appellate court later overturned the decision, but in 1983, the original verdict from the 1981 lawsuit was upheld.

Throughout the 80s and 90s, Brooke’s star continued to rise, and she appeared on the covers of magazines and starred in several big-budget films.

However, the n*d photos of her as a child resurfaced when artist Richard Prince used one of the photos in a transformative artwork of his own.

The artwork, entitled Spiritual America, was set to be displayed in 2009 at the Tate Modern Gallery in London, but Scotland Yard suggested exhibiting a photo of a naked 10-year-old could violate London’s obscenity laws, and the artwork was subsequently removed.

Recently, the photos have become public knowledge again due to a meme showing Hugh Hefner’s face photoshopped over Brooke’s naked photo.

The meme mistakenly credits Playboy magazine for publishing the photos in the 1970s, though it was actually Sugar and Spice.