Grace Elizabeth is grateful to her mother for her modeling success. Her mother encouraged Grace Elizabeth to start modeling in her childhood pageants. She then went on to model prom dresses in mall runway shows. They were soon shouting together with joy at seeing her face on a Sunset Boulevard signboard. They traveled the world together, sharing tiny hotel rooms. Things got even more exciting when Katie Grand, super stylist, selected Grace Elizabeth for a Miu Miu Show. V MagazineChanel campaigns and a successful runway career.
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The model, now 24, is a mother to her son Noah. Fashion’s pandemic slowdown allowed her a longer-than-usual maternity leave. “I got to take a break and reevaluate, as a person, what’s valuable to me,” Grace Elizabeth says. “What are my priorities outside of fashion? What kind of person are I? What things am I interested in?” When she returned, it was with a new focus: becoming an advocate for ovarian cancer awareness. Grace Elizabeth was inspired to raise funds by her mother who was diagnosed in 2018 with the disease. She also posted on her social media platforms and participated in walkathons. “I’ve seen her go through treatment, a short remission, back into treatment. I’ve seen what the cancer itself does to the body, what chemo does to the body and the mental state. It’s life-shattering,”she says, adding that “it’s such an uncommon cancer that there’s not enough funding.”
Grace Elizabeth describes how becoming a mom to Nicolas Krause has been the best part of her life. “I think I was born to be a mom. Everything I have, I pour into him happily,” she says of Noah.“It’s so amazing to watch him discover the world for the first time. He finds the extraordinary in what may seem ordinary to us. We get to see it all over again, see the beauty in things.” As the fashion world has reawakened and she’s returned to work, adapting to her tiny travel companion has been relatively easy (“He’s an incredible traveler, knock on wood”). What’s been trickier to manage are the complicated new feelings about her career and motherhood. “Mom guilt is very real. I think a lot of women often don’t speak about it because they’re either afraid of judgment or just [dealing with] self-inflicted guilt,” she says. “I feel guilty for enjoying myself when I’m away or at work or having that moment of time to myself. Then I also feel guilty that I’m not there, that maybe he needs me or I’m missing something, because every day he learns something new.”
Her peace of mind has come from being part of a fashion-world boom. This gives her a group that she can freely talk to about parenting. She and her friend, photographer Zoey Grossman, who has twins, “are able to speak about postpartum struggles and what it’s like to become a new mom. Gigi [Hadid]Emily [Ratajkowski]—our children are around the same age,” she says. “We don’t have to beat around the bush and say, ‘Oh no, it’s wonderful.’ Because as wonderful as it is, as grateful as we are, it is very hard.”
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These friendships have been critical to her confidence and happiness—and have helped shape a message she wants to share with other mothers. “You feel like you’re failing all the time, even when you’re not. Hormone flux is insane. It’s up and down,” she says. “I don’t think there are a whole lot of conversations around [the]Postpartum [period] because there’s guilt with it. It’s okay to feel angry or alone or tired and confused, or to feel like you’re doing something wrong, or to just want to be a little selfish with your time, take 15 more minutes in the shower.”
While she figures it all out, she’s looking forward with hope. She welcomes the return to fashion and the new adventures she will have as a parent. She dreams of a career in acting and has been studying Method acting and self-taping. “Walking in all of these shows, it was so amazing to be back in this crazy chaos. With a bit more caution, generosity, and humanity, it was possible. Motherhood has been absolutely incredible, and I’m a very lucky woman,” she says, adding, “and hopefully you’ll see me on a big screen soon.”
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Laurent Philippon Hair at Bryant Artists. Stephane Marais Makeup. Alexandra Janowski at Artlist Paris. Casting by Shaun Beyen. Plus Three Two. Set design by Samira Salami at Swan Management. Clément Camaret at Brachfeld.
This article appears on the February 2022 issue.
Source: elle