‘When you chew gum, you can’t think,’ she said. ‘The brain goes.’

Shortly after school let out Monday, five girls ages 11 to 13 reported to a second-floor studio in Northridge. There, they are learning how to turn their youthful dash and energy into ladylike charm and make themselves look beautiful.

They sat in pink and white directors chairs on a white linoleum floor, facing their own reflections in a wall-length mirror.

Their teacher at the Rainbows Ahead Charm School was a part-time actress named Susan Rian, a slim young woman with long, brown curly hair and high cheekbones accentuated with a pink blush.

Rian asked the girls if they had done their facials and how their skin felt afterward.

“Better,” a girl named Melissa answered. “But I have a zit.”

“Why don’t we go right into modeling?” Rian said brightly. “Let me see your new walk.”

One at a time, each girl walked across the room, watching herself in the mirror.

For the first few passes they all strode like boys.

“Start out slower,” Rian said. “Get control. Slow down. You’re so good I just want more of you.”

Barbara Thomas, the director of the school, stood to one side and watched approvingly. She struck a formal pose that seldom changed. A smile was always on her face.

“Oh, nice, Mary,” Thomas said to one. “You are going to be fantastic.”

When she noticed a girl chewing gum, though, she made her throw it out.

“When you chew gum, you can’t think,” she said. “The brain goes.”

Rian taught the girls how to pivot to show all sides of themselves to the audience.

“Let the audience like you,” she said. “Give them the best of you.”

The girls were supposed to strike a flashy pose with each pivot. They seemed a little afraid of doing that. Rian pressured them lightly.

“It’s so cute when a model is leaving and she makes one more pivot and pose, like to say, ‘Goodby.’ ” she said. “They love you so much they want one extra look.”

A girl named Tami overcame her bashfulness and swung her head sideways and her shoulders back.

“Look out! Sexy model!” Rian said.

Then they did it all together, behind Rian, while a rock singer on the radio sang out:

“You can’t start messing with the danger zone.”

“Walk, walk, walk, walk, step, pivot,” Rian called out, stabbing her fingers into the air with the beat. “Use sound or your fingers or a little hip gyration to get the beat going.”

The two-hour class ended with a session on make-up.

First the girls did foundations, daubing beige cream on their cheeks and then brushing over it gently with pieces of sponge.

Then, with large brushes, they touched pink blush over the cheekbones.

“That accentuates your cheekbones, which women, for some reason, like to do,” Rian told them.

Eye shadow and eye liner followed.

“Think of blending the colors to make your skin look natural,” Thomas told one little girl.

“You want to have someone say, ‘Oh, your eyes look pretty,’ not ‘Oh, your make-up is pretty.’ ”

“Now we’ll use a little, itty, itty bit of eye liner,” Rian said.

“How about a little gloss, Susan, on their little lips?” Thomas asked.

They finished up with eyebrows.

“You want to brush your eyebrows and use a little hair spray on the brush to hold them up,” Rian said.

“It seems strange to put hair spray on eyebrows,” Thomas observed.

“It seems strange to do a lot of things for beauty,” Rian answered. “But we do.”

When the girls were gone, Rian disappeared to compose herself. A half an hour later, she returned for the evening session. It consisted of three girls ages 15 to 20.

Class began with a discussion of whatever the girls had on their minds.

Speaking non-stop for three or four minutes, the first girl, who was 15, said she had been depressed because she broke up with her boyfriend, who was 17, and started going out with another one, who was 20. Her parents liked the boy but not his age. Her old boyfriend didn’t like him at all and was cutting him down and telling her that she had changed and all her friends didn’t like her anymore. But she didn’t care.

“I think I’m as happy now as I’ve ever been,” she said.

The second girl reported that she hadn’t had any “good fights” with her mother recently. The third girl was having trouble deciding what she wanted to be.

“I’m good at cutting hair,” she said. “I want to go into that. I also want to study French. I want to go into acting. I want to go into photography, too.”

Thomas and Rian advised the girls in general terms, urging them to try to communicate with their parents and to work hard at school.

Then they read from a handout on table manners.

It gave tips like, “Chew quietly with your mouth closed. Take small bites.” It also said, “Carefully drop gristle or meat you can’t chew onto your fork, held closely to your mouth.”

Rian didn’t agree with that one.

“I would never take a fork up to the gristle in my mouth,” she said. “That is going to draw more attention than if I put my own natural finger up to the little yucky in my mouth.”

She said the girls should make up their own minds what rules to follow.

“It’s up to you to decide how ladylike you want to be.”

Rian brought out a place setting on a wicker tray. One course at a time, the girls went through a formal dinner, learning what to do with the six plates, four glasses and seven utensils.

Now, if they want, they can be very ladylike.