Girls arrive at school prom as life-sized Barbie dolls

Two 16-year-olds from Somerset made an entrance at their school prom by dressing as life-sized dolls, complete with Barbie packaging.

Emily Pounde and Hannah Jagger, from Wadham School in Crewkerne, were delivered to their school prom boxed up on the back of a flat-bed trailer.

The boxes were made by Emily's mother to "stand out from the crowd".

Emily said they had both liked Barbies when they were little and had wanted to do something different.

On the night of the prom the doll boxes were loaded on to a flat-bed trailer and the girls, wearing gowns and tiaras, got inside for a tour of the town.

"We were planning to get just outside Haselbury Mill [the prom venue] with the trailer and get into the boxes then," said Emily.

"But we decided we'd go the whole way around the town instead.

"We had the Barbie song playing out loud and it drew quite a lot of attention - a lot of people looked and waved.

"But it's something to look back on when we're older - even if we do find it embarrassing - we'll have those good memories."

The Year 11 school prom was held at Haselbury Mill, a country house venue near Crewkerne, at the end of June.

"It was a bit claustrophobic but it was exciting," said Hannah.

"And the lights inside the boxes were really good on the night because it made us stand out more."

One in 10 parents spend £500 on their child's school prom in the UK.

But the plywood and Perspex boxes for the girls' prom entrance were hand-made by Emily's mother, Christine Pounde, in just two days.

"It was a lot of work," she said.

"But I just wanted something different for them - and they'd got to the end of school and it needs to finish with a bang."

Mrs Pounde offered to make Ken doll toy boxes for the girls' prom dates, but the teenage boys declined.