Brooke Shields Had Stipulations For Her Daughter Grier’s Modeling Career
Brooke Shields’ daughter Grier may be following in the footsteps of her mother, but the model-turned-actress had some hesitancies, and stipulations, regarding her career. During an appearance on the LIVE with Kelly and Mark show, Shields explained her qualms when the 17-year-old first expressed interest in pursuing a similar career that she had.
"The rules have changed since I was [a model]," Shields noted. "I fought it for so long. It's such a different industry now than it was.”
Shields started modeling at 11 months old and made her on-screen debut in the highly controversial film Pretty Baby at 12 where she played a child prostitute. Throughout her decades-spanning career Shields was the subject of sexualization and exploitation, so its no surprise that she is hesitant for her daughter to go down the same path.
“I fought it for so long,” Shields explained, though she and her husband Chris Henchy eventually obliged to Grier’s wishes. “It’s so much faster now. We didn’t have social media when I was a model.”
Shields, who modeled in an infamous Calvin Klein ad at just 15, explained that Grier is starting to model here and there but has to wait until she is 18 to fully pursue the trade. Shields also had a list of stipulations regarding how her daughter will approach modeling.
"I'm not gonna be your manager,” Shields said on the morning show. “You're going to be with an agency. You are gonna have a great work ethic. It's not going to be comfortable and you're gonna listen to me. Those are my rules. And, you're going to college."
The 58-year-old was the subject of the Hulu documentary Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields which explores, mainly, her complicated relationship with her mother and the ways in which she was sexualized throughout her career. In an interview on TODAY, Shields said her daughter was ‘outraged’ when she first watched the documentary.
"She said, 'Nothing you say to me, Mom, is going to make it better,'" she explained. "She said, 'I hate seeing bad things happen to you.' She just sobbed and ran out of the screening room, and my husband was upset because I wasn’t protecting her."
