Kaia Gerber, SooJoo Park, Precious Lee, and More On Finding and Using Their Voice as a Model

[upbeat music]

[reporters talking]

Do I have a tattoo?

[Interviewer] I gather congratulations are in order.

[Interviewer] For what? Is that right?

Are you getting married?

Oh, not that I know of.

[crowd cheering]

Thanks so much for coming.

I grew up with an incredible woman as an example

who maybe people didn t know that she had a lot to say

and was very smart, but she was.

And she didn t feel like she had to prove it, she just was.

And so I saw her and I never thought,

you know, a model was anything but that.

I feel like models used to have the least power,

which is

why we heard so many of the stories that we re hearing.

We were voiceless at one point because we were

just there to stand there and look pretty.

And it didn t really matter what we had to say.

When I was younger, I just wanted to please everyone.

And so I sort of gave that power to everyone else.

I definitely struggled as a young person going

into the industry because I was told I looked too young

I was too giggly, and all that stuff.

As a kid, I was given the pep talks

or like getting the school bully to leave the nerd alone,

that I ended up being both of their friends.

There were just so many different dynamics, I think,

that came from being a confident child.

I realized that I wanted to use my voice for helping people,

helping others that I knew also had a voice,

but didn t recognize it yet.

I came into the industry only with the intention

on being a pivotal figure.

For so long, at least,

I was just waiting for the invitation to speak up

or the invitation to be anything other

than what was being offered at the time.

And that never came.

You know, people were asking me,

What s your beauty routine?

But they weren t asking me questions like this. [laughs]

When I first started my career, I knew I had a voice,

but I had to fight for it so much.

I felt like every day was a fight,

but I pushed so hard.

I stood my ground in whatever I did,

and I had my sense of self,

and I commanded respect no matter where I went

and who I talked to.

At the end of the day,

if you know what you re fighting for,

it doesn t matter what you re risking.

That s the hard part about this is

that if you wanna speak up about things that you believe in,

sometimes somebody that you work with doesn t believe

in the same things you do, and sometimes that s an issue.

I think that I m very different from either a lot of girls

that are very high tip at the top,

and also girls that are just starting that literally need

to do this job to put food on the table.

Like, that s the issue of all of this.

If they speak up, sometimes people will get offended,

and what, you re not gonna get the job again?

Like that for me, doesn t feel right.

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I think more before it was like, you walk the shows,

you appear on the magazines,

you are in campaigns and you become muses.

But like now, it s definitely more like how much audience

do you have and how much clout you have?

You know, now it s like,

unless you have a million followers,

it s like, who are you?

Existing on social media, and I think this is true for,

I would imagine, just about everybody who has

a social media account, it s really fucking scary.

I always feel like I m not good enough,

but I always want to be the best I can be

for the people that follow me,

especially younger boys and girls

that don t have a voice the way I do.

And I wanna be able to speak up for everybody that I can.

I remember, I think it was 2018,

after Parkland,

I went to a March For Our Lives rally.

And I remember posting about it.

And in my head, and I was 16 at the time, I was like,

nobody could disagree with this.

Every kid should be able to go to school feeling safe.

And there were countless and countless comments

of people disagreeing with me.

And that was the first time that I realized how important

it was to speak up about issues that you cared about,

how not everyone is going to agree with you ever,

but that should never stop you.

And that just made me wanna do it more and more,

and find other things that I cared about,

and other things that I wanted to bring

awareness to and fight for.

Like that fueled me to, I guess, continue on that journey.

There also have been times where I didn t feel

like I had the right to say something,

and I was pressured

by comments or people

I barely knew or didn t really know who were like,

Oh, why aren t you speaking out about this?

Because I don t feel like I have the right to say anything.

And it doesn t mean that I don t care, but I, you know,

just because I also didn t say something

doesn t mean I don t feel something.

Social media has made certain things very one dimensional.

When I make decisions on whether or not

I m gonna speak up for something,

I like to make sure that I m well-read

in that subject or area.

And usually, when I stand up for something,

it s something that s really in my heart

and something that I ve experienced.

There s a lot of plus-size Asian women.

And it s been

so amazing to connect with

that audience because I

never really saw other people who look like me

or heard similar struggles in that area,

growing up, and having this audience,

just connecting with people while sharing

and hearing their stories and how we relate,

and just talking with them as friends

has been super healing.

My fans, they re very,

they re very communicative with me.

I get a lot of DMs.

I had a lot of dark-skinned girls telling me

how much they used to hate themselves and their skin.

And they said that when they watched me just live

in my own skin and have the confidence that I have,

and enforce so much change that they ve learned

to love themselves through loving me.

[rhythmic music]

I think power is something that you give yourself.

I don t think someone else gives you power,

or position gives you power.

I think for me, a big part of power is

reclaiming it and harnessing it because historically,

I mean, trans people and queer people have been oppressed,

and told that we shouldn t exist or that we re nothing.

And I think,

when I step into my truth,

that s when I m stepping into my power,

because when I embrace

the truth of who I am and my identity,

that s when I can really harness the power within myself.

Last year, I solely did modeling.

I just took the task of being the character

and being the essence of what the team wanted me to be.

But now, I m in a space where I can create

and direct my own shoots, I can style, I can...

Just being creative as a whole,

I have more power in a sense,

and I can affect change in different aspects of a shoot.

People with African descent are just so innately creative.

I mean,

I love being Black so much,

and I feel so grateful to have such innate,

creative abilities that I feel like just comes

so naturally for me,

as well as being able to speak up

for those that don t have a voice.

It s like the best of both worlds, I feel.

The power dynamics in fashion, I think,

are slowly starting to dissipate

because I think that everyone has value on set.

And that s why I want models to be more creative

cause I know so many models who could bring it

so much to the table with shoots.

If you enter a room

commanding respect and standing your ground,

and releasing that aura of your sense of self,

it doesn t matter what you go through cause you will,

can affect so much change for yourself,

and your career, and other people.

I think models always had something to say,

and had other interests,

and had things about them that maybe people didn t know.

And I guess, now we just have a platform for it.

I ve been in this business for seven years.

And now,

I finally feel as if, you know,

if I speak up about something I feel passionately about,

if I get in trouble,

then I don t wanna be in your campaign,

or I don t wanna be in this, or I don t wanna be in that,

I can say that now.

I feel if you stand in your power,

you re always respectful, and you have your boundaries,

and you know who you are,

I don t feel like you should be scared.

And I ve gotten to the point where I m not scared anymore.

If you want me, you want all of me and you want who I am.

You want my background.

You want what I stand for, and that s about it.

[laughing] You get all of me.

[rhythmic music]