Cindy Crawford's Daughter Follows In Her Mothers Footsteps. Hope She Doesn't Trip
In case you haven't heard, Cindy Crawford's daughter is the new face of Young Versace.
My first thoughts were: Who buys Versace for their kids? And who cares?
But also, why? It's not like that Crawford-Gerber family is in need of money. Putting their child's face in a magazine is about the chasing of fame, pure and simple.
Their beautiful 8-year-old daughter wants to model and they made it happen. And I don't get it.
I was told to get my daughter a stylist so she could model, but I said no. I don't want her worth to be based on her looks. Enough people tell her that she is beautiful, I don't want strangers and stylists and people paid to tell her that too.
So now Kaia isn't just in a Versace ad, she was on the front page of MSN.ca yesterday with a link to more information about her. She is being talked about in the gossip blogs, and here too. Is that what Cindy Crawford wants for her daughter?
Does she want what she had? Decades of adulation? Diets? Glamour? Prying eyes?
As I have written before, I don't understand why parents push their children forward for fame. If you are beautiful and talented at 8, you will probably be even more so at 18. And if you are not, so what? Everyone has talents, just not all of them are photographer-worthy.
Just because your 8-year-old wants to be an actor or your 12-year-old wants to be a model doesn't mean they should. Laineygossip (Internet addiction warning) has an interesting post on this issue.
She isn't a mother, but she wonders about why good parenting is defined by "Wish Fulfillment". Why the desire of an 8-year-old girl gets met, even though the outcomes of the desire can be destructive for her and for her family.
A researcher at the Digital Media Center writes at the Huffington Post that according to a study she conducted: fame is the number one priority of tweens. They see reality TV and a million hits on YouTube as a legitimate life's goal.
Whenever I see the kids on American Idol or X Factor say: "I have really wanted this for my whole life!", I always laugh. My 8-year-old would like superpowers and maybe he will find a way to make humans fly or teleport, but he will have to do it through hard work, not just good genes and an audition.
I wish Kaia luck and I hope fame is all that is cracked up to be and more. I hope Lainey isn't right in her assessment:
There’s a 10-year-old walking around now being told every day that she is beautiful and important. And somehow, one day, she’ll have to try and justify it. What happens when she spends her life searching for that answer and comes up with...nothing?
Our kids are living a life in front of a screen and a camera. They see fame as an end goal. But we have seen the flipside of fame, the teens whose lives burnout after their moment in the sun. I think it is my role to make sure that doesn't happen to my kids. Do you agree?
Would you let your kids model or be part of reality TV?
Want more chaos? Last year, I had a guest post by a parent of an only child on how she has handled those questions.
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