Kaia Gerber recalls seeing mom’s nude photos growing up

Kaia Gerber, 24, opened up about her unusual upbringing as the daughter of supermodel Cindy Crawford, revealing that her childhood home was adorned with nude photos of her mother. The images, she said, were an empowering part of her environment and offered a distinctive perspective on body positivity.

“They were, to me, artistic,” Kaia told Harper’s Bazaar. “It wasn’t vulgar; it wasn’t objectification.” She described it as “a gift to grow up in a house that was without shame for the female body.”

Gerber grew up alongside her older brother, Presley Walker, 26, in a home that she described as “pretty isolated” but “in a really great way,” where life was “as normal as it could have been.” Despite the prominence of her mother’s career, Kaia attended public school, participated in theater, joined choir, performed in singing recitals, and danced. She even became an avid theatergoer, attending Broadway shows in New York and memorizing all the lyrics to Rent by the age of nine.

While Kaia appreciated the artistic nature of her mother’s photos, she noted that her brother’s perception of their childhood was different. “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,” she said.

Her modeling career began early, with Kaia being handpicked by Donatella Versace at 15 to appear in the designer’s first children’s campaign. At that time, she transitioned to homeschooling to accommodate her burgeoning career, following in her mother’s footsteps. She officially debuted on the runway at 16 and has since walked for high-profile fashion houses such as Chanel, Versace, and Prada.

Kaia emphasized that Cindy Crawford did not coddle her children. “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,” Kaia explained. “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.”

Despite growing up surrounded by the fashion world, Kaia insists her childhood was grounded. She described it as book-heavy and rich with extracurricular experiences outside the modeling sphere. The nude photos of her mother, lining the walls of their home, were a normalized, non-objectifying element of her life.

Kaia’s upcoming projects include The Shards, reuniting her with American Horror Story co-creator Ryan Murphy. She was recently seen on set with co-star Homer Gere, whose father, Richard Gere, was once married to Crawford.

Through her candid reflections, Kaia illustrates a childhood that was simultaneously extraordinary and grounded, influenced by both her family’s celebrity status and a household culture that embraced openness about the female body.