Last week we discussed Kaia Gerber’s successful go as a runway model in New York, Milan and Paris. In addition to whether or not she has talent, we discussed her age (16) and her “it” factor. I tend to agree she doesn’t stand out in print like her mom, Cindy Crawford, did but I do think she’s probably going to be a great runway model. Plus, she’s 16, she’s still got some maturing to do. During PFW, Cindy was front row, taking videos like a proud mamma. Was she, though? How does Cindy feel about her daughter starting her career at such an early age? Fine, according to Cindy – she started at the same age.
Cindy Crawford is getting honest about her daughter Kaia’s exploding modeling career.
Kaia, 16, was the undisputed star of New York Fashion Week last month, walking multiple high-profile runway shows, including Chanel, Alexander Wang and Marc Jacobs. In a recent interview, Crawford admits to having a little bit of apprehension.
“In some ways, I wish I could have pushed it off a year or two,” Crawford tells the Associated Press about Kaia’s Fashion Week debut. “But she’s 16. That’s how old I was when I started, which is young, but in fashion, that’s kind of the normal age when people start.”
“The great thing for my kids is that I know a lot about that world,” Crawford adds, referring to her 18-year-old son Presley, who’s also a model. “I feel like, who better to help guide them than me?”
I’ve read a few more outlets on this quote – as far as I can tell, Cindy does not elaborate as to why she would have “pushed it off a year or two.” I’m assuming so Kaia could at least graduate high school first but it doesn’t really sound like Cindy cares. She herself only attempted a semester of college before she gave up school for full time modeling, maybe she doesn’t see why Kaia should have to wait. If that sounds cynical, it’s because I am. I understand models start early but I didn’t know what the heck I wanted at 16, what if Kaia decides this isn’t for her a few years down the line? She’ll have to start over. And if Cindy wished she could have pushed it off a year, why didn’t she? I get so tired of these celebrity parents acting like there is nothing they can do about their children starting so young. Until they’re 18, you’re still in charge. However, some of you said in the comments on the last post that Cindy has been trying to get Kaia on the runway since she could walk.
Cindy did mention that Kaia just got her driver’s license and that she’s “a lot more concerned about her driving by herself then entering the world of modeling.” Here I can agree with Cindy. My first kid is only three years away from his and I’ve already started having dreams about it. That’s more about my trying to teach him, however. In the meantime, I wish Kaia good luck in her career and driving. Considering she’s negotiating LA freeways, they are probably both equally perilous.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Getty Images
Their son seems to have so much more of the “it” factor; the girl just seems listless. If she doesn’t show joy in this work, then she’s gonna resent her mama.
Kaia and Cindy have dead eyes. The whole family gives me weird stepford vibes. Go back to HS Kaia, have a childhood for feck’s sake.
Exactly. There is no spark to any of them.
Both of the kids got their dad’s small down-sloping eyes. It’s a feature that tends to look better on men than women.
Cindy has never had much of a personality, despite being valedictorian of her high school and a chemical engineering major. Always wondered if being such an Amazonian beauty made her too self-conscious to have a personality. I think that lack of personality is reflected in her eyes to some extent.
Her daughter has eyes that are kind of close together, I think. I do think the daughter is pretty (and very well-groomed for a 16 year old), but I find the close-set eyes a little distracting to look at.
“Cindy has never had much of a personality”
WHAT?!? Um, House of Style would like to disagree.
Was she good on that show? I believe you.
I’m just going by what I’ve seen on talk shows, and she never strikes me as really funny or amusing. To be fair, most models don’t. Christie Brinkley is a real snooze. Cindy Crawford seems interesting next to her.
I do think Cindy has had some tragedy in her life (i.e her young brother’s life and her father leaving the family), so maybe that has had some effect on her personality. It’s when she talks about her brother that I see some depth in her. When she talks about the beauty tips she passes on to her kids, she seems kind of…shallow.
She has always struck me as fairly money-oriented, but, again, maybe that has to do with her father leaving her mother. I kind of wonder if that’s why she’s so fixated on her daughter on being a model, because it’s the industry where women can make the most money. I don’t think Cindy is a bad person, but immense financial security has always seemed really important to her.
I know, right? The boy has Cindy’s captivatingly bony face and swagger. Kaia has a nice skinny body, but her face isn’t much better than any reality TV show daughter. Pretty in a generic I-went-to-high-school-with-that-chick sort of way. She could be Kendall Jenner’s or a number of the Real Housewives’ daughters sister.
Agreed! The boy actually looks more like Cindy, he just doesn’t have her coloring. The boy has the “wow” thing going on… The girl is pretty minus the X factor… And Cindy was kinda awful on House of Style: she doesn’t have a great voice.
The son is STUNNING. Kaia looks like Mom, yeah, but it’s a matter of millimeters, really — the same features just off by a tiny bit make the difference between a pretty face and a show-stopping one.
In that top pic, Cindy really IS Caitlyn Jenner.
In that picture with Kaia and her brother my eyes immediately fell to him. I literally thought “who’s that?”. It jut pisses me off really because Kaia is petty,but not stunningly so. She’s no more striking than any other young pretty regular girl. I feel like I pass dozens of Kaia’s everyday on my college campus. The only thing that makes her special is who her mom is and for that fact I get this girl forced on me as some supposed “it” girl. It happens a lot with these nepotism models like Kendall.
I understand why if this is the topic of discussion, because she is trying to be a model. But look at what happened to Olivia Newton John’s daughter. She was also trying to be in the public eye, and she ended up with a lot of issues because of these kinds of comments. Maybe we should just keep it to ourselves? About her looks at least, and focus our criticism on her age or education or something else?
@menutia, I’m with you. The girl is 16. I know the mum put her up to this but there is a certain level of cruelty to compare her to the it factor mum, and dissecting her looks in such a manner.
Conversely, saying they are gorgeous seems equally outrageous to me. This focus on looks or the It factor is a bit too much.
The son is very handsome, I think the bone structure of his face is extraordinary.
Not trying to body shame Kaia or anything, but in some photos on the Daily Mail a few days ago she looked really anorexic. She looks better in these photos but she’s getting thinner. I think 16 is too young to model high fashion because starving yourself is always awful, but starving yourself or dieting a lot while your body is still developing is even more detrimental. I would not let my kid into that industry at that age :/ If ever
It could also affect her height. If she doesn’t care about the other stuff, she should care about that.
I agree she looked shockingly thin in her fashion week photos. She used to not be that emaciated looking. Maybe she just had a growth spurt and her weight has not caught up, but it was alarming.
I did wonder if she had a growth spurt. She suddenly looks taller.
I agree, she is scary skinny. Maybe that’s her age and genetics though. There is no way I would allow my children to enter into a career that judges people solely based on their appearance – and certainly not at the tender age of 16.
I’m wondering about the length of her arms – Marfan’s syndrome? Other than that, she looks sort of like that Jenner twit to me.
Long arms can be just that, long arms. My brother is 6’3″ with arms like a primate, long and gangly just like Kaia’s.
She looks like she’s 14…a young teenager not someone verging on adulthood. Like a little girl wearing her mom’s makeup and clothes lol
Her kids are bloody gorgeous. I mean, I get that Kaia hasn’t displayed that “it” factor her mother has – yet, at least. But holy cow, the features on both kids are impressive. Those eyes and cheekbones. I wish.
Kaia and Presley seem like good kids. Hopefully they’ll be fine, whatever they choose to do with their lives.
From what I’ve read Cindy Crawford was doing local catalog and department store modeling at 16 and didn’t hit the NY and European circuits until she was 19. Plus was done with high school and had at least some additional education. So not quite the same.
And agree, the son has way more the “it” factor and comparing pics from their summer vacation on IG to last week, Kaia has noticeably dropped weight.
That’s what I was going to say. How did she get her college education if she was wandering Europe? Catalogue and mall modelling. All the nepomodel should be doing at her age as well.
The son is very Blue Steel, love it! As for starting modelling st 16 if she hates it and has to “start over” she will have a nice fat bank account and still only be 20 years old! What’s the problem? I mean, other then 16 year olds modelling clothes for women.
She already has a nice fat bank account LOL
Ugh she does not have an IT factor other than looking like her mother. She literally is Cindy Crawford lite… both in looks and magnetism, like seriously, she’s a waif version of her mother. Nepotism strikes again. The son does have a male model look so understand his career but Kai will ride her mothers coattails because she has nothing to offer other than nostalgia for Cindy Crawford supermodel days.
Ah yes. The old chestnut, I did something unhealthy when I was a child and turned out fine! I don’t need to protect my child from that now, I was fine!
So much side eye here.
Just because it was ‘always done this way’, doesn’t mean it should continue. It amazes me the lack of depth in thought these models have about fashion and image and how it impacts others.
From what I recall, Cindy may have started at 16 but it was for local catalogs and department stores, not doing couture in NY and Europe. Big difference.
I’ve got even less of an excuse for her if that’s the case.
Just, come on fashion industry, girls should not be used to sell women’s clothing.
All I can see is: Presley her son = Joffrey Baratheon
I think the daughter will be prettier when she reaches her prime. All about aesthetics to her (the mother). Cindy was supposed to be “Baby Gia.” Gia was so much prettier in my opinion but had drug issues, etc. and didn’t covet the modeling world like Cindy does. In the earlier days from what I can garner, it was all about the blonde and blue, so brunettes stood out.
I thought Janice was “baby peanut”.
Wow. I meant baby Gia, of course.
I saw the same thing about her daughter looking noticeably anorexic in those Paris pix. And yes, I don’t want to “body shame” a teenager it’s a little ridiculous that THIS is how designers choose to sell clothes to adult women.
And GMAFB equating Cindy’s Chicago catalog modeling w haute couture fashion week modeling. Completely different. IMO Cindy should feel embarrassed her daughter is repping the Emaciated Look. It’s unhealthy for the message it sends to young girls and for her own daughter. Doesn’t she realize she never even had to do that? Even in her youngest days she had a figure.
Throw in the nepotistic stench and I’m over it.
I get it. Both kids have the potential to be models. Why compare Kaia to her mum and look for the it factor? It’s so unealthy to talk about people’s looks like this.
Look at the other models around her in the previous article, they look bored out of their minds and are unoticeable lookswise. Not all models are It models.
There is a chance of Cindy trying to live vicariously through her kids but there is also a chance that she really thinks this is the biggest deal ever. We don’t know. Most of us disagree (I know I do) but at the end of the day, we all open doors for our kids, be it in the local shop for their first job or the contacts we have in their potential work environment. If they stay on the job or not depends totally on them.
But Kaia was all of 10 when she did that Versace ad, and still a toddler when those shits of her with back tatoos and all 😞😐 were doing the rounds. Cindy has been pimping her since the cradle!
The brother is stunning. Kaia is a cute girl. I mean she would be considered pretty in high school but not model material.
Ugh I barely recognized Cindy. She is starting to morph into Janice Dickensen.
Kaia’s weight loss worries me, her face features completely changed.
IIRC, Cindy did not grow up wealthy, and saw the money from modeling as important for her and her family. She also didn’t start full time until she was in college.
Her daughter has the luxury of not ever having to worry about money, so why not wait, get an excellent education, and maybe do a little modeling during breaks in the school year?
That is a rediculously good looking family.
They are … weird vibe looking at them here tho. As if -this is the beginning of the end. Strange. I don’t know, Cindy has always creeped me out since she started pimping her daughter as a toddler. Prior to that, I always respected Cindy. Now I think she and her husband are creepy. Can’t explain it, just a vibe.
I do remember tho when Richard Gere split from her, and his later comments when he married Carey Lowell -he said “I married the right woman”. Now Cindy was already insecure and at the time they split, the talk was she wouldn’t leave the house and it broke her. Since then, any personality she had disappeared. I feel sorry for her. She always seems to be playing a role.
It’s bizarre she’s pushing her kid so hard into this. It boggles the mind why you wouldn’t want her to have a normal childhood/HS experience at least until the age of 18…..but I guess if there is some sense of vicariously living through her then that makes sense.