This adorable creature used to have a normal mouth. Then the Italian photography duo, Winkler+Noah revised her slightly to make a point about excessively motivated parenting with their latest art project, “The Puppet Show.”

The exhibition, featuring 30 photographs of similarly eery Charlie McCarthy kids, recently captivated Milan. In their statement, the photographers (whose real names are Romina Raffaelli and Stefano Marinui) pulled no punches, defining their focus as:

Children we ask too much of, to be perfect, like dolls. Children who have become the sons and daughters of…pretense and image…who are inevitably losing their naturalness.

The point, they’ve said (in mellifluous Italian words that often end in “i”) is to remind people that “the best present we can give to children is to let them be children.” And to keep them away from Winkler+Noah.

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