Like many non-famous parents, many celebrities love to share pics of their kids on social media.
But others shield them from such scrutiny, sometimes indefinitely.
Tori Spelling announced the birth of son Beau, her fifth child with husband Dean McDermott, Thursday via a photo of the newborn's tiny hand. Spelling and McDermott had introduced their previous two children, daughter Hattie, 5, and son Finn, 4, using similar photos online.
They had debuted the first pic of their eldest son Liam, 9, which did show his face, on the cover of Us Weekly in 2007, a month after he was born. Daughter Stella, 8, made her public debut via an OK! magazine cover in 2008, a few weeks after she was born. Finn's face was first shown on an Us Weekly cover as well, in 2012. Hattie's was first seen in a family pictorial for the magazine in 2011. Spelling has since posted a slew of pics of her kids online.
Magazine cover reveals for celebrity babies used to be all the rage, with some commanding hefty sums from the outlet, which many star parents donated to charity. Now, they are becoming scarcer as social media has become more popular and reaches a wider audience.
Many celebs have introduced their kids to the public for the first time like Spelling recently did—with photos that do not show the child's face.
Stars who have used baby hand pics include Alyson Hannigan, Idris Elba, Holly Madison and Carrie Underwood.
Maksim Chmerkovskiy and fiancée Peta Murgatroyd waited six weeks until they showed their newborn son Shai's face to the world, via a Good Morning America interview. The Dancing With the Stars pros have since shared several pics and videos of their baby on Instagram.
Nine days after Murgatroyd gave birth, Chmerkovskiy had posted a teaser photo showing Shai sleeping in a crib adorned with a plush Dumbo toy.
"To the paps posted outside the house for the last three days: Not gonna happen! We got security ova here #ProtectionByDumboAndCo#DontFuqWithJerseyElephants #ThisAintHollywood," he wrote.
On Valentine's Day, Chmerkovskiy shared a sweet family pic, although Shai's face was hidden again.
"It's nerve-racking because I specifically wanted to keep him very private from the beginning because we just want to keep him for ourselves," Murgatroyd told GMA.
"There's going to come a time where he's going to be with us walking hand-in-hand down the street and everyone's going to be able to see him," she said. "There's so many moments and opportunities that are gonna come up very soon where you just, you can't hide him any longer."
It's understandable that moms want to wait a while before showing their babies to the world. The child is their precious gift and they want to protect them. So they opt to keep things private for a while before blasting out the possibly daily photos and videos (and order their moms and mothers-in-law to do the same).
It's also understandable if they want to act to keep things private as long as they can help it.
Last September, Kristen Bell shared on her Instagram a photo of one of her and husband Dax Shepard's daughters for the first time. The two are parents to 3-year-old Lincoln and 2-year-old Delta. Bell's photo was a long shot that did not show anyone's face but her own.
The couple had famously paved the way for many media outlets, including E! News, to adopt a No Kids Policy and avoid publishing photos of minors taken without their parents' consent, which granted more privacy to celebrity kids.
While Zoe Saldana does occasionally post photos of her and husband Marco Perego's 2-year-old twin sons, Cy and Bowie, she makes sure their faces are hidden or partially hidden.
Two weeks ago, she made a surprise announcement on Instagram; She and Perego welcomed a third child, baby boy Zen. She posted a birds-eye photo of their twins playing with him. The back of the baby's head is shown, while his brothers' faces are partially obstructed due to the angle.
"I just don't want 16 years from now to get ‘You are so disrespectful. You invaded, you exposed me and I wasn't ready,'" Saldana told E! News in 2015. "Even though they're babies and they're under our care, it's still their face."
"Right now, they're not in the position to speak for themselves or make a decision," she added. "I don't want to make it for them."
Other celebs who had avoided sharing photos of their children's faces, but do post other pics of them, include Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan-Tatum, who have a 3-year-old daughter, Everly.
Adam Levine and wife Behati Prinsloo shared the first photo of daughter and first child Dusty Rose two months after she was born. Her face was obstructed by a baby carrier. The couple waited until she was four months old before they officially debuted her publicly—and in person—at the unveiling of the Maroon 5 singer and The Voice coach's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame last month.