The Untold Truth Of Kaia Gerber

In Malibu, California resides a selective group of extremely attractive people: Cindy Crawford's family. Every member of the clan has experience as a professional model — that includes Crawford's husband Rande Gerber, her 18-year-old son Presley, and her youngest child, 16-year-old rising star Kaia Gerber. 

Gerber made her modeling debut for Calvin Klein in September 2017, and has been getting more and more jobs (and Instagram followers!) ever since. If you've spotted the youngest Gerber during one of her appearances on the runways or posing in ads for major brands like Versace, you've probably noticed that she looks similar to her supermodel mom. That's an understatement... she's such a carbon copy of a young Cindy Crawford, it's distracting. But there's a lot that sets this teenage up-and-comer apart from her family, too. From her modeling career, to her fandoms, to her academic successes, here is the untold truth of Kaia Gerber.

Remember Cindy Crawford's iconic Pepsi commercial? Okay, and then remember her second-most iconic Pepsi commercial? What about her third? In 1992, Crawford tantalizingly walked out of a Lamborghini and drank a can of Pepsi in a superbowl ad. Hot women drinking cold soda? Who could believe it? Ten years later in 2002, Pepsi recreated the ad with a new twist — Crawford was now driving an SUV and her two real-life kids, Presley and Kaia, were sitting in the back. Crawford still drank Pepsi as tantalizingly as ever, and Kaia was introduced to America in this huge ad campaign before she turned two. 

More recently in 2018, Pepsi again recreated the original Pepsi ad as part of its montage commercial combining Pepsi ad imagery from different generations. Crawford appeared once again, but only Kaia's older brother Presley was with his mom in this version. Maybe Kaia will return for a version 4.0?

A Vogue interviewer visited the Crawfords' amazing home in Malibu as part of the magazine's 73 Questions video series, and asked if it was true that Crawford framed all of her children's artwork when they were little. To answer, Crawford showed off two examples of framed kid artwork still on display in her kitchen (or at least, they were on display that day): a crayon self-portrait of a young pig-tailed Kaia, and a black-and-white edition of Presley's "surf photography." 

Also revealed in the video via an expertly staged cameo from Kaia herself: her mom's nickname for her is "Kiki." While Kaia only makes a brief appearance, the entire tour gives insight into the grand, stylish, very-California-esque home where she was raised: lots of white, wood, plants, framed photos from her mama's modeling days, and a backyard deck overlooking the family's pool and the Pacific ocean. Like everyone in the family: beautiful. 

If you're a model and your mom is one of the most successful models ever, hopefully she'll offer a little advice. Gerber has recounted a number of tips her mom has passed along to her, from how to mentally approach her work to how to keep up with her eyebrows. Gerber told ET, "She's just always told me to have a thought behind every picture and every expression. You're not just blank, you have a reason for what you're doing." 

And regarding stylish brows, which Crawford has been able to maintain through many changing makeup trends, Gerber revealed that her mom's best advice was to do nothing at all. She told People, "She told me not to touch my brows. There was a time when I really wanted to do stuff to them, but she doesn't touch hers and she still has really good brows, so I just learned from her not to touch them and I'm glad I didn't." Sounds a lot less painful than threading.

In the late night wars, Jimmy Fallon has the support of at least one supermodel-to-be. Gerber is apparently a huge fan of Fallon, and she told Elle that she "freaked out" when he said her name on his show. In February 2017, Kendall Jenner appeared on The Tonight Show to talk about a photo shoot she had done for LOVE magazine, which included shots of Gerber, Sienna Miller, and others. Fallon observed aloud about Gerber, as many have before, "She looks exactly like Cindy Crawford." (Jenner of course agreed and called the mother and daughter's resemblance "scary.") 

Gerber gushed to the magazine, "I was like, "He's holding LOVE Magazine! He knows who I am!" Yes, he does. And the more famous Gerber gets, the more she might realize that a lot of other celebrities know who she is, too. With three million Instagram followers, she is officially one of them herself.

According to the tabloids, Gerber may be dating another child of fame: She is reportedly in a relationship with Fenton Merkell, the son of Eastenders actress Patsy Palmer (via The Sun). Supposedly the two teens even met through their famous moms — Merkell and his fam moved to the United States from England when his mom left the British soap opera she'd appeared on over the course of 20 years. 

Ah, meeting a significant other through famous family friends... a classic tale of Hollywood romance. Merkell and Gerber are both pursuing modeling, so they can talk shop with each other, and they both nail that very cool Generation Z look. Plus, they can commiserate about how simply overwhelming it is to have parents who are so glamorous and successful. Merkell's Instagram feed is enticingly spare, while Gerber's is mostly professional, so a confirmation of the relationship via social media may not be on the way any time soon. 

Kaia Gerber's dad is Rande Gerber, who you may know of as George Clooney's friend and business partner in their very successful Casamigos Tequila company. The company was reportedly sold to bigger corporation in June 2017 for somewhere between $700 million and $1 billion, which in the business world is known as "crushing it." 

Every year, the liquor company has a celeb-filled Halloween rager, and in 2017 the theme was the 70s — you may have seen photographs of Kim Kardashian at the event dressed as Cher. Gerber and her brother went full glam disco era as well with their outfits, but unsurprisingly they didn't look silly at all; they looked like chic gorgeous models. Gerber sported a blonde, blunt-banged hairdo, pale icy eye shadow, huge hoop earrings, a sequinned silver halter top with matching glittery platform sandals, and a mini skirt. Side note to complete the visual of the evening: Her dad was wearing a suit with most of his shirt buttons undone, which could have been funny or embarrassing, depending on the attitudes of all involved.  

Yes, Gerber has shot ads for Marc Jacobs and walked the runway for Versace (...and Chanel, Fendi, and Burberry). But she's still a 16-year-old girl, and she does some normal teenage things — like attend high school and get excited about passing her driver's test. Gerber is a student at Malibu High School. Well, actually, correction: she's an honor student. 

In March 2017, Gerber's dad shared an Instagram photo of both of his kids' honor roll certificates. Kaia's shows that she got a 4.0 GPA for the Fall 2016-2017 semester. Her dad wrote in the Instagram caption, "Brains courtesy of @cindycrawford.." While Crawford is obviously best known for her modeling, she is also a major brainiac. As a teenager, she was valedictorian of her high school and got a scholarship to Northwestern for chemical engineering. She ultimately ended up dropping out to fully pursue modeling, which certainly worked out for her. 

Gerber landed her first solo Vogue cover at 16 years old, which is four years younger than her mom was... not that it's a contest. Gerber appeared on the February 2018 cover of Vogue Paris wearing over-the-knee furry black boots and a flowing, pillowy, bright pink tube top. She wrote on Instagram that she was "the happiest girl in the world." According to People, Gerber's mama first reached this benchmark when she landed the cover of American Vogue in August 1986. 

Gerber also got a head start on her mom, planning her big debut from a young age. Crawford explained to The New York Times, "I think we both wish they could have been a little older, but the world is different now, and Kaia wanted to do it. When she was 13 we said to her, 'mmm, when you're 16.' And then, all of a sudden..."

You may love your siblings, but would you go so far as to get their name permanently inked onto your arm? In February 2018, that's exactly what Presley Gerber did for his little sis. He shared an Instagram photo of his new tattoo: cursive letters writing out "Kaia" above his elbow along with the roman numeral signifying "23." He captioned the photo simply, "23." What could the mysterious number mean? You may have to be a Crawford-Gerber (or marry into the family) to find out. 

The tattoo was done at Bang Bang Tattoos in Manhattan with in-demand tattoo artist JonBoy, who also shared a photo of himself with both Presley and Kaia Gerber, as well as Presley's girlfriend Charlotte D'Alessio. Maybe if you're from a famous fashion family, going to a tattoo artist's studio together is the equivalent of, like, Thanksgiving dinner?