Kaia Gerber Didn’t Realize How “Iconic” Mom Cindy Crawford Is Until About a Year Ago

Kaia Gerber knew when she followed in mom Cindy Crawford’s footsteps and started modeling she’d have some big shoes to fill. It wasn’t until last year, however, that she really understood how massive those designer stilettos were.

In an interview with WSJ. Magazine, published Tuesday, Gerber revealed that watching the 2023 Apple TV+ series The Super Models, which chronicled the histories of Crawford and fellow “supers” Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Linda Evangelista, opened her eyes to what a trailblazer her mother was in the industry she’s now a part of herself.

“I was starstruck in front of her after,” she said. “I was like, ‘I didn’t realize. I knew you were iconic, but….’ I didn’t understand when I was younger.”

While Gerber has been modeling since she was a child (and has now added acting and book club curation to her resume), she said that she was impressed by her mother’s success “coming from a very different background than I did.”

“I thought it was so cool that she always had that ambition, and she did things where people told her, ‘This will ruin your career. Don’t do this,’” Gerber said. “And she trusted her instincts.”

With her supermodel mother and her father, Rande Gerber, who co-founded the Casamigos tequila line with George Clooney, Gerber knows she’s a nepo baby and is thankful for it.

“I don’t think it’s a topic that will go away, so I’ve clearly reached a point of acceptance,” she told the magazine. “I personally am very aware of all the wonderful things it has done for me, and I would never, ever say anything negative about it, because that is my truth about it.”

Plus, while parents typically love giving their kids advice on dealing with school, friends, romance, whatever, 22-year-old Gerber is in a position to get expert-level tips from people at the top of her industry—who just so happen to have raised her.

“I can actually ask my parents advice on career things, on business things,” she says. “That’s very rare, to have parents who are in the same industry or career as you, whose advice you actually can trust.”