Kaia Gerber explains why the pandemic was something of a blessing in disguise for her mental health

Flying all over the world for modelling jobs as a teenager sounds incredibly glamorous. For Kaia Gerber, daughter of the model Cindy Crawford, she was reaching a point of burn-out.

The lockdown of the global pandemic in 2020 forced Kaia to return home to her family. She was able to reconnect with her parents during Covid-19.

"Honestly, it came at a time when I really needed it, and it was a really difficult time in the world, but I really had reached a point where I just felt like I was falling out of love with it [modelling], and I didn't know that you could ask for a break," said Gerber.

"I was forced to stop, and I realised how badly I needed one.

"When you're being told what to do every day, you don't have time to sit and reflect. But I had gone through so many changes and had so many massive things happen to me over the years that I was modelling."

The February issue of Elle, which she has posed for the cover of, the model shared that sometimes she felt 'lonely' without her family nearby which impacted her mental health, but now she is working from home more. She added it helps to have a therapist as well.

"I had four or five years of processing to do," said Gerber, who is the first model born in the 2000s to achieve The Big Four of Vogue covers; American Vogue, British Vogue, Vogue France and Vogue Italia.

"I felt so lucky that I got to be with my family because I'd spent so much time away from them, and I realised I had so much guilt about missing birthdays and things. I had been traveling since I was a teenager, and so I got to develop an adult relationship with my family.

"I'm only 21, and I feel like I've lived a whole life already," the Marc Jacobs model told the fashion magazine.

Her mother, the global icon Cindy Crawford, has imparted some wisdom to Kaia, including: "Be on time. Take the time to learn people's names, and be nice to everyone. If you're not grateful and happy to be there, there's someone who would be."

Kaia has found friends in the modelling industry to lean on, and she didn't see the cattiness or competitiveness she had been warned about. Some of her model friends are Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber.

"When you're forced to sit with yourself, all of a sudden, you're aware of all the stuff you haven't dealt with," continued Kaia.

"There wasn't communication happening between me and myself, and I felt out of body sometimes. Once I developed that, I was like, 'This isn't something I want to give up.'

"My personal life and my mental health are not something I'm willing to sacrifice for my job ever again. Right now, I'm getting to work at home, which is a beautiful thing, and not travelling all the time. I come home, and I'm with my dog. I have friends, and I'm cooking dinner. I see my therapist, and I see my family."