Kaia Gerber has invested in W magazine.
The 18-year-old model has become one of the top investors in the fashion magazine, after it changed hands to be run by Bustle Digital Group in a new deal aimed at reviving the title following a series of failed investments.
Alongside Kaia, fellow model Karlie Kloss, movie and television producer Jason Blum, and Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton have also invested.
W’s editor, Sara Moonves, told The New York Times: "We did it all over Zoom. None of us even met in person."
The deal with Bustle Digital Group – which already runs Bustle, an online magazine for women, and Mic, the social justice-focused website – comes after Marc Lotenberg, the owner of W’s previous operating partners Future Media Group, furloughed the majority of the magazine’s staff and suspended its publication in March, blaming the coronavirus.
Just nine months before, Marc had purchased the magazine from Condé Nast in a deal The New York Post estimated at $7 million.
For Kaia, the investment comes as she’s been keen to branch out into other projects, to make sure she isn’t labelled as a model.
She said: "Well, I always like to say, I model – but I am not a model. Because once you put ‘a’ or ‘an’ ahead of a title, it staples that to you … So, my advice to others who want to navigate new territories would be to not hesitate and just do what would make you proud. Never box yourself in."
The teenager – who is the daughter of Cindy Crawford and Rande Gerber – is also learning to be less codependent, and to appreciate being on her own.
She said: "Not allowing your happiness to rely on someone else’s, I think is a huge thing."
And explaining that she has the self-help book ‘Codependent No More’ to thank for her new outlook, she added: "I was like, ‘I’m so independent. I’m good,’ and I was reading that book and I was like, ‘Nope, I am absolutely codependent’."