Model and actress Kaia Gerber confessed she has "had disordered eating in my life" and revealed how the glare of public scrutiny affected the way she coped. She stated that negative comments from the public failed to help her deal with mental health issues.
"People are like: 'You look terrible,' and it doesn’t exactly make you go: 'Oh, good. Let me get over this mental illness then!'" Gerber recalled. She insisted: "Negativity has never saved someone’s life."
The 24-year-old entered the spotlight as a teenager following in the footsteps of her mother Cindy Crawford, one of the top supermodels of the 1990s. Gerber offered candid reflections on how her body image was impacted by people measuring her against Crawford.
"We’re clearly in one of those cycles right now where people are very, very, very thin," Gerber observed in the September issue of Vogue. She reflected on being constantly compared to her supermodel mother.
"As someone who’s been thin most of my life, I’ve always been compared against my mom - like, What’s wrong with Kaia? I’m so jealous of my mom’s body. I would have loved to be born with boobs and a butt," Gerber admitted. The Daily Mail contacted a representative for Crawford for comment.
Vogue Cover and New Project
Gerber covered the September issue of Vogue alongside Homer Gere, whose father Richard Gere was married to Crawford from 1991 to 1995. The feature addressed their parents' past marriage.
Crawford, 60, later married businessman Rande Gerber, 64. The couple welcomed Gerber and a 27-year-old son named Presley.
Director Ryan Murphy cast Gerber and Homer together in his new show The Shards, which he co-created with novelist Bret Easton Ellis.
In her interview, Gerber praised online reactions to viral stills of Homer's dad bod on Euphoria. "Everyone’s being like: 'This is so sexy.' And I think that rocks," Gerber gushed.
Homer took a more self-deprecating view, noting that the "fact that I’m apparently a body-positivity icon has opened my eyes to the absurdity of the media."
Mother and Daughter Comparisons
While promoting The Shards, Gerber revealed she strenuously disagrees with fans who describe her as a doppelganger of Crawford.
"In all seriousness, it's an honor when people tell me I look like my mom. I wish I did. I think even on my best days, I'm not even close," the Bottoms actress told Yahoo Entertainment. "But it means so much to me. I think she's just the most beautiful woman inside and out. And so if there's any way that I remind anyone of her, it's just like the largest compliment."
Crawford previously took a defiant tone when prodded about allegations that the fashion industry promoted eating disorders. "That's a little bit of a stretch," Crawford said in a 2009 interview with the Guardian. "I don't know that much about eating disorders, but I'm certainly not one of the people they've blamed, because I'm not super-skinny."
Crawford added: "I think people want to find something to blame. An eating disorder is way more than a girl looking at a magazine and seeing a picture of a skinny model. Maybe that's one tiny piece of the puzzle, but I think it's a lot more about self-esteem and self-love and control, so it's too simplistic to just blame it on models who are skinny."
Fashion Trends and Family Background
The era of Amazonian supermodels gave way in the late 1990s to the heroin chic aesthetic associated with Kate Moss.
"Did fashion celebrate thinness more? That's a different question," Crawford reflected. "You can't fault the models for that - they were just thin girls." She maintained: "Kate Moss, she eats. I've seen her eat, and she's just thin. Fashion is all about extremes, and it's constantly in flux. It's just fashion."
Earlier this year, Gerber shared that her mother's relaxed approach to naked photos was a positive example during her upbringing. Crawford posed nude for Playboy in 1988, a risky move that increased her public profile.
While Gerber was growing up, images of her mother undressed were displayed around the house, which Gerber told Harper's Bazaar "were, to me, artistic." She added: "It wasn't vulgar; it wasn't objectification," calling it "a gift to grow up in a house that was without shame for the female body."
