Modeling for her mom.

Six-year-old Dannielynn Birkhead made her adorable modeling debut in Guess Kids ads released on Monday Nov. 27 -- and the little girl's father, Larry Birkhead, says that the talked-about campaign is a memorial of sorts for Dannielynn's mother, Anna Nicole Smith**, who burst onto the modeling scene herself in sexy Guess ads in the early 1990s.

"Dannielynn has always looked up to her mom's image and . . . I think that this is kind of Dannielynn's way of paying tribute to her mom in her own special way," Larry, 39, explained on Good Morning America Tuesday Nov. 28.

Despite a paternity dispute with Anna Nicole's former partner, Howard K. Stern, Larry has raised Dannielynn since the Playboy model drug overdose death in 2007; their daughter was just 5 months old at the time.

He continued: "To see her mom's picture next to hers as a Guess girl and say, 'Hey, I was a Guess Kids girl, my mommy was a Guess girl,' that might be her only connection with her mom," he added bittersweetly.

Still, the single dad insisted that Dannielynn is an average child whose new modeling gig is purely for fun.

"My goal for her is for her to be a child and just do what all kids do," he said.

"Dannielynn has the same playful spirit that her mother had on a set," praised Paul Marciano, Creative Director for GUESS?, Inc. in a press release.

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: Dannielynn Birkhead's Guess Ad Is "Her Only Connection" to Mom Anna Nicole Smith, Says Dad Larry Birkhead