She built an incredibly successful career in the fashion industry, but model and actress Brooke Shields is adamant that she won’t let her daughters follow in her footsteps.
Having started working as a child model at the age of 11 months, Brooke became a household name after becoming the youngest model to grace the cover of Vogue, at the tender age of 14.
Brooke – who is mum to 14-year-old Rowan, and 11-year-old Grier – knows only too well how tough the industry can be on a young girl, however.
Opening up in an interview with Social Life magazine, she admitted that she has banned her children from entering the modelling industry.
“It’s a cutthroat and demoralising business,” she explained. “Plus, they want you when they want you, and you have to be there for auditions and work – and my kids aren’t missing school.”
She went on to touch on the downside of her experience in the fashion industry, and by the sounds of it, we’re not surprised to learn that she doesn’t want her daughters following her career path.
“If I hadn’t had the intellectual piece as my friend, I would have been more devoured by an industry that has no loyalty whatsoever. You do think, because you’ve been in the industry all of your life, that it will be loyal – but it’s the antithesis of that.”
Brooke has always spoken candidly about her experience of motherhood, touching on her struggle with postpartum depression after welcoming her first child.
Brooke, who is married to screenwriter Chris Henchy, previously admitted that she ‘really didn’t want to live anymore’ while suffering with the condition.
“I had no desire to even pretend to care about her. And it absolutely terrified me,” she told Oprah Winfrey.
“This gripped my heart to such an extent that I didn’t even have the desire to try to overcome it. I mean, I was flattened by it. I was devastated by it. And it wasn’t the ‘baby blues’.
“I was told it was the ‘baby blues’ at first. And so then, what was wrong with me was even worse. I thought, ‘Well then, I must epitomise failure if I can’t even get past this’.”
While we are sure that Brooke would never stand in the way of her children’s dreams, it seems like she is taking a sound approach to their future.
What are your thoughts, mums?
