Kaia Gerber on when she learned her mom Cindy Crawford was famous
— -- Kaia Gerber, daughter of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber, knows she has some pretty big shoes to fill.
"I think it was only on my eighth birthday, at Disneyland, that I started to understand what was going on," she told Teen Vogue's Icons issue about being the offspring of a famous supermodel. "I wanted to take pictures with the princesses, and everyone wanted to take pictures with her!
Now, photographers and designers are clamoring to work with Gerber, who turns 16 next month and is already an up-and-coming model.
At 10, she became the poster girl for Young Versace and recently she modeled for Alexander Wang's spring 2016 campaign and Marc Jacobs' Daisy campaign.
Despite that, she tries to remain down-to-earth.
"My parents have always taught me to be myself and to follow my instincts. They also say that you should never let what other people do affect what you want to do," she told the magazine. "It changes everything when you accept who you are and you don’t try to change yourself."
For Gerber, that means not being afraid to show her flaws on social media.
"Everyone expects you to be on it all the time, but social media is just everyone’s best version of themselves," she said. "I try and give people a truer depiction of who I am."
With 1.4 million followers on Instagram, Gerber knows she has a lot of young people looking up to her.
"It is so key to me to be a good role model for young girls and someone their mom would want them to look up to," she said. "I now reach so many people, and it’s hard for them to know what is real. I don’t take any platform I have lightly. It’s so important to send a good message."
And who does she look up to?
"I really look up to Karlie [Kloss]. She’s broken all the rules of what a model should be and uses her platform to benefit others," Gerber said. "All my icons I look up to as people, not just their work. 'Iconic' is not a word I use lightly. You have to earn it."
