Kaia Gerber covers HARPER’S BAZAAR’s February 2026 issue, on newsstands February 3. In an exclusive interview with Durga Chew-Bose, Gerber, now a decade into her modeling career, reflects on coming of age in the industry and learning to take ownership of the trajectory shaped by others’ expectations: “I’m quite happy to be a vessel. It’s not lost on me that part of my job is just being what people want me to be and being a canvas or mirror for people to reflect their own ideas onto.”
She also opens up about her upbringing and her mom Cindy Crawford’s candid approach to mentorship: “She doesn’t give out advice unless you ask. But if you ask, get ready, because she’ll be very honest in ways that, sometimes, it’s hard to hear,” Gerber says. “She’s usually right, which is infuriating, but she’s also very willing to let me make a mistake that she made 30 years ago.”
On modeling and identity: “I am a shape-shifter,” she says. “I let my identity be that I can transform, rather than what I transformed into.”
On feeling misunderstood by the public’s perception of her: “The fact that I constantly talk about it means I have an issue with it,” she says. “I don’t think it’s something that will ever be conquered, and I’m coming to terms with that. Sometimes it’s easier to know that the projection that you are making of yourself onto the world isn’t the entire you.”
On her romantic relationships: “I would say I romanticize,” she says. “I don’t know if I’m romantic. I’m a daydreamer. I play out every scenario in my head. I can kind of convince myself that someone is anything that I want, even if they do everything to prove that they’re not. My imagination is really strong, and it’s been such a gift in my work. Not always a gift in relationships.”
On her upbringing: Gerber is almost startlingly forthcoming about her childhood, which she describes as “pretty isolated,” but “in a really great way,” and “as normal as it could have been.” She continues, “I always went to public school. I did theater. I did every community play. I was in choir. I did singing recitals. I danced.”
On growing up around body positivity: If books were prominent, so, too, were naked photos of her mom, the supermodel and mogul Cindy Crawford, which lined the walls. “They were, to me, artistic,” she says. “It wasn’t vulgar; it wasn’t objectification.” In fact, Gerber describes it as “a gift to grow up in a house that was without shame for the female body.”
On learning vulnerability: Gerber admits that prior to her stage work, she’d always wanted to be seen as “the easy one.” I ask her what she means. “Someone who doesn’t need attention, like, an ‘Oh, we don’t worry about her’ kind of person. But I’ve recently realized that it actually prevents people from feeling genuinely close to you if you’re not sharing your vulnerabilities with them.” Gerber confesses she was likely attempting to prevent closeness. “I’m quite good at deflecting. I believe that power and dominance, a lot of the time, is attention, and I think I feel more powerful when my attention is on someone else.”
On comparing her childhood experience to her brother’s, Presley Gerber: “It’s so interesting to articulate your own childhood, because I have a brother who’s two years older, and our memories are completely contradictory, which is really fascinating and I think has taught me so much about how multiple realities can exist at once,” Gerber says.
Carol Burnett on filming with Gerber for season two of Palm Royale: “A sponge” and “beyond her years” is how Burnett describes Gerber, who would often wait around the Palm Royale set, even if she wasn’t shooting a scene. “She didn’t just go and take a nap in her trailer. She was observing, always watching and learning, even camera setups. I wouldn’t be surprised if someday she might direct,” says Burnett, who was thrilled when Gerber attended her 92nd birthday party.
[Photo Credit: Luis Alberto Rodriguez for Harper’s BAZAAR Magazine]
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