Kaia Gerber is her multi-talented self, covering WSJ Magazine Spring 2024 Women’s Fashion Issue, lensed by Lachlan Bailey [IG]. Geraldine Saglio styles Gerber in a Celine by Hedi Slimane fashion story, supplemented with a bit of Courrèges, Isabel Marant, Prada and more. / Hair by Shay Ashual; makeup by Mark Carrasquillo

Josh Duboff’s interview with Kaia Gerber highlights her unorthodox career-development trajectory, including her “side hustle” as what Gerber calls “the internet’s librarian.”

Supermodel Cindy Crawford’s daughter is inspired to organize her own career development, learning how to lean-in to different possibilities that inspire her — like her first Instagram bookclub.

Kaia Gerber Internet Librarian

Now, Gerber is launching a more formal version of the club called Library Science, which includes a website and filmed interviews with authors. Reader engagement is also being woven into the online space.

Gerber signaled early on that her interests were diverse, with an intellectual twist. For example, in the Spring 2020 issue of i-D, Kaia was interviewed by her friend, playwright Jeremy O. Harris.

The playwright expressed how honoured he was that Kaia and her mom Cindy came together to see his highly-regarded ‘Slave Play’. In a moment of serendipidity, AOC calls out yesterday’s [February 13, 2024] announcement that the 2020 Tony-nominated ‘Slave Play’ is headed to London’s West End. Dates are not yet confirmed. Bravo!

Kaia Gerber Actor

In 2023, Kaia subverted the “hot cheerleader” archetype in the edgy comedy ‘Bottoms’. In March, she’ll appear in Apple TV+’s series Palm Royale, as a warm-hearted manicurist who aspires to become a model. In a jam-packed schedule, Kaia just wrapped filming on Mother Mary, an A24 musical film starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel. ⁠

After watching the fall 2023 Apple TV+ released "The Super Models," a docuseries about Crawford as well as her fellow “supers” Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista, Kaia had a better-than-ever understanding of how “smart and focused and ambitious” her mother was “from a very young age, coming from a very different background than I did.”

A Famously Close Mother-Daughter Bond

Her mother’s embrace of ambition truly inspired Kaia, as her daughter. Female ambition has always been a fraught-with-tension topic in American feminism. To embrace ambition signals failure in other, more important goals like tending the home and being a good mother. The irrepressible Phyllis Schlafly and her almost single-handed defeat of the ERA [Equal Rights Amendment] lives on today as a key battle in American politics.

“Gerber’s willingness to puncture her privileged background image is part of her comedic appeal”, writes Duboff. Kaia walks straight into her Malibu-family of Omega Watch ambassadors background. Interviewed in November, 2023 at West Chelsea Planet Omega exhibit with Cindy Crawford by the new head of Sotheby’s Media Kristina O’Neill [formerly EIC of WSJ Magazine], it’s clear that Kaia is part of an upper-echelon network of rich and influential people.

Reflecting on growing up in Malibu, Kaia expresses the idea that she never quite fit in. “I just always felt like there was sort of a separation, like I’m watching everything happen, but I don’t necessarily feel in on it.”

Perhaps Kaia Gerber and Jeremy O. Harris can collaborate on a play on nepo-babies. Just imagine the cast they could assemble! Throw in some racial reconciliation scenes like was done in South Africa for real.

Check out the new Cindy Crawford cover story for Flaunt Magazine, lensed by Greg Swales. It’s a beauty.