Leni Klum wanted to hit the runway before she actually did.
The 18-year-old daughter of legendary model Heidi Klum told PEOPLE she got an offer to model a brand’s clothes when she was just 12. Her mom had other ideas.
“I was stopped in a Brandy Melville when I was 12 and they asked me to model for their clothes. I was freaking out because Brandy Melville was my favorite at the time. It was the only place I went shopping,” she said. “I said ‘Mom, mom, guess what? Brandy Melville wants me to model. Please, please.’ She was like, ‘Absolutely not.’ I was really sad about it, but in the end she was right. And I feel like that’s what sparked me to model more.”
Leni reminisced about growing up and visiting her mom at work and what an impression it made on her.
“I’ve always gone to work with my mom and thought, ‘This looks so fun. She looks so happy while she’s working,” she said.
After a lifetime of watching her mom in action and weathering the turning down of her first offer, Leni is now a burgeoning model herself. Her career really took off when she appeared on the cover of Vogue Germany with her mom.
“That’s, like, insane that I did that as my first job and my mom was with me, which made it so much fun. It was just such a good day,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous at all. I was just so excited. I was like, ‘I’m finally modeling and it’s Vogue.’ It was just so many things to be excited about.”
Related
Leni is now a Dior beauty ambassador and going for her college degree in interior design in New York City.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign up and follow Audacy
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram