With a unique name, a beautiful face, and a contract with Victoria's Secret (she's been an angel since 2008), model Doutzen Kroes is hard to forget. Now pregnant with her second child and first daughter, Kroes talked about the possibility of her future child modeling — and her comments to Page Six may surprise you.
While many daughters of models end up modeling themselves (beautiful people breed beautiful people, what can we say?), Kroes said that she doesn't really want her daughter to model at all, and hopes she has very different goals than one day walking down a runway:
Instead of saying, "You're so beautiful," I'll say, "You're smart," so she'll have different aspirations in life than beauty and modeling. Though I love my job, I'm not changing the world. I'd love for her to study and to have different aspirations. We need to teach girls they can become presidents, and it's not about beauty all the time.
This isn't the first time that Kroes has commented on the somewhat superficial nature of her career. Last year she told the New York Post that she felt guilty that her job resulting in other women feeling insecure, and that the world of Photoshop and editing often warps how she actually looks.
"I always say, 'I don't look like the picture'," Doutzen told the Post.
However, as the Huffington Post pointed out, there really couldn't be any harm in Kroes telling her daughter that she's beautiful. In a time when an increasing number of young girls are insecure about their own looks, hearing that you're beautiful from your mother is an important thing — especially if you're mother is, say, a world famous supermodel.
But what Kroes is generally saying about the lessons she hopes to teach her daughter is important, and something that every mother should consider. Even though most of us aren't strutting down the Victoria's Secret runway in lingerie and angel wings, it's still easy to buy into the media's portrayal of beauty and the pedestal on which society often puts attractive celebrities.
When the women who are the most famous and the most talked about in the world are often in that position because of their looks, it's confusing for any young girl. But being encouraged by your parents to be smart, to study, and to one day be a president — well, that's something important that we can all get behind, yes?
Doutzen Kroes: supermodel and supermom.
