Interview with Cindy Crawford
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Cindy Crawford
Model from DeKalb, Illinois, one of the 1990s supermodels, longtime face of Revlon and cofounder of the skincare line Meaningful Beauty.
These answers are taken from Cindy Crawford on The 90s, Supermodel Power & Gratitude on Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What drew you to a career as a model?
As a young woman, I didn't even understand that modeling was a real job. I grew up in a small town outside of Chicago. I loved school. I was very good at school. I wanted to be, I think, the first woman president, or a doctor or a teacher. I definitely had aspirations for myself, but they were more around being a nuclear physicist or something like that. I just thought that was a big job. And then the modeling thing just kind of happened. It wasn't something I really pursued. Once the first door opened, I definitely stepped down that path.
I didn't grow up even knowing models really, or knowing that was a real career. Then America's Next Top Model made it so every young girl knew about modeling, then it became Instagram, and every girl is a model in their own life. So it was a very different world then.
How did your career as a model unfold?
We were like a band almost. We were these four women from different lives in different places, where the sum of our parts was greater than each of us individually. Before us there was this group of blondes, Kim Alexis, Kelly, and they were all kind of glam Amazon blondes. They all looked very similar. And then there was us, and we all looked different, but we somehow looked good together. Christy was the classic beauty, and I was the sexy girl next door, and Naomi had been a dancer and obviously is a woman of color, and then Linda was the chameleon. We had our little roles that were different. Christy, Linda and Naomi were called the Trinity, and I had my head in a book somewhere. I was there, but I was in bed early reading a book.
I'd been with Revlon at that point 17 years, and I knew it was time to do my own thing. Sometimes you just know it's time. It was great, and now it's time. And I thought, if I'm ever going to do my own thing, this is the time.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as a model?
Everyone wanted me to do cosmetics. And I was like, I'm not a makeup artist. My job is to take care of my skin. So I partnered with a doctor in Paris, Dr. Sebagh, and we decided to do skincare. I talked to Bill and Greg, and even though it was a much riskier thing, they gave me more control and full partnership. I would say, could my mother and sisters relate to this? Could they do this? Could they afford this? Meaningful Beauty was like that too. I met this incredible doctor in Paris, and he was helping me figure out how to take care of my skin as I age. They can't go to Paris and they can't get in to see this guy. But how do we bottle this? That was really the impetus of Meaningful Beauty.
At the time, I did not know that [branding] was what I was doing. No one was talking about branding or define your brand, but I knew what was true to me and I knew what felt authentic to me. The fitness stuff, a little makeup book with a friend of mine, a kids book when I had a kid. Everything was attached to me in a real way.
Think about a demanding photographer, designer or client. What made them difficult, and how did you work with them successfully?
When people treated me like I was dumb, I was able to know that was more about them than it was about me. And I think I also learned, okay, sometimes I'm just going to play this game. Sometimes they ask you to do something completely ridiculous. One time we were in Hawaii shooting for Vogue, and they had a professional surfer there, and they said, "Can you just get on the surfboard with him, paddle out, get on his shoulders, and he's going to surf in with you, but don't get your hair wet." And I don't surf. And I was like, "Oh, sure. But can you just show me that? If you just show me what that looks like, I think I can probably do it." And then they were like, "We're just going to do it on the beach." Perfect.
Has your career as a model progressed the way you expected?
I signed with them in 2001, but we launched in 2004. So we're 21 years now. And I never thought I would still be doing this. I never thought I would still be in front of the camera. Even when I did Meaningful Beauty, I thought it would be a five-year thing or a ten-year thing. We just had a board meeting two weeks ago, and I was like, you guys, I've already won. I never thought we would still be doing this, but now we have employees and customers, and that feels good, and it's also a responsibility. I want our team to really be behind every decision we make. It's not just me, because now we're a big team.
How do you keep communication clear with photographers, designers and your agency?
It has to be right. The chemistry has to be right. I have to feel comfortable. With Herb, obviously, I felt 100% safe and not sexualized. He looked at people like architecture. Herb loved people. Herb always saw people as the best version of themselves. I never heard Herb say a bad word about anybody.
The only picture I regret ever is the one I got talked into. A guy was shooting a reportage at my apartment, and I wasn't even naked, I was just topless from the back, but I felt manipulated into it. Certain people maybe give you a weird vibe, and I had one, and I just didn't know how to say no, or didn't say no. When I look at it, I know what I was feeling.
People that work with me, if they show me something, do you like this or this, I'm like, that. I'll say, you don't have to agree with me, and if the whole team thinks it should be this, let's talk about that. But this is my belief.
Describe your style.
I kind of understand that Cindy Crawford is a thing. It's a product. Even I'll say, okay, we got to do full Cindy Crawford today: the hair, the makeup, high heels. Yes, it's one facet of who I am, but it's not the totality by any stretch of the imagination.
I went on a blind date once. I call them half-blind dates when you're a public person, because they know what you look like already. This person knew me from, let's say, a Cosmo cover: pushed-up boobs and big hair and super sexy. And I remember opening the door to my apartment, and this could be my own insecurity, but I felt this disappointment that I wasn't the walking, talking Cosmo cover. And then the things that go through your head: is that who I want to be in my life? The world's going to say whatever they want about me, but who do I want to say I am? I don't get to control the whole narrative, but I at least get to think about how I want to show up in the world, how I want to present myself in the world. And it changes as time goes on.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your credits.
I grew up in a Midwestern family. I don't ever remember being complimented for my looks as a kid. So that wasn't my identity. We really got complimented for effort, and I happened to be good at school. My older sister was the athlete. I would have probably been a better athlete, but I needed glasses and no one had figured that out yet, so I was terrible at ball sports. So I was the student. That's who I was. I was a straight-A student. I'd been valedictorian. I had gone to college, even though it was very brief and I dropped out.
Cindy Crawford's Full Biography
Cindy Crawford was born on 20 February 1966 in DeKalb, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Fair Game (1995), 54 (1998) and Cougar Town (2009). She has been married to Rande Gerber since 29 May 1998. They have two children. She was previously married to Richard Gere.