The eldest of Kobe and Vanessa Bryant's daughters opens up about living up to her family name and becoming a star in her own right.
The Bryant surname comes with a heavy combination of fame and expectation, but Natalia Bryant is handling both with grace. In an interview for Town & Country's family issue, the eldest of Kobe and Vanessa Bryant's four daughters opens up about living up to her family name and becoming a star in her own right.
The 21-year-old has begun making her mark in the entertainment industry as an aspiring model and filmmaker, from her modeling debut at the Versace Spring 2024 show during Milan Fashion Week to interning for Parkwood Entertainment and working on Beyoncé's Renaissance World Tour. She does it all while keeping up with her filmmaking studies as a University of Southern California undergrad.
"I think it's fun to have my foot in both [fashion and film] worlds," Natalia tells the magazine. "They're both collaborative, and you meet so many different people... It makes the world feel smaller."
She says she likes to be the bridge connecting her friends from different parts of her quickly expanding life. "What I've always loved about film is that it's such a collaborative art form," she adds, saying the appeal is being on set with a group of disparate creative people coming together to tell a story. "And I view modeling the same way."
As Natalia shapes her future, she also contends with the legacies left by her late NBA dad, who tragically lost his life in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, in 2020, along with her younger sister, Gianna "Gigi" Bryant, and seven others. Kobe was 41 and Gianna was 13.
But rather than seeing said legacies as an oppressive burden, Natalia says she views their memories as motivation.
"In terms of legacy, my main goal is just to be the best version of me that I possibly can and understanding that there's no expectation that I should have for each stage of life," she says, which means keeping an open mind, as well as channeling her father's famous work ethic and inexhaustible drive. "I just need to know that I have to keep learning, because there's no finish line. You just have to keep pushing and being the best person you can be and soaking everything up like a sponge... The job's never done."
For now, that means fleshing out her interests as director, which the undergrad shares is in "girlhood and coming-of-age stories," inspired by the work of directors like Sofia Coppola and Greta Gerwig.
Natalia's love for storytelling is a lifelong one that stems from her childhood tradition of telling her parents bedtime stories instead of the other way around. "My parents would ask me, 'Do you have a story?' And I'd say, 'Oh, OK! There was this princess...'" she recalls. "I've always loved world-building."
"Natalia has always been able to accomplish anything she sets her mind to," Vanessa gushes to the outlet about her eldest. "Whether she's at home with us, with her friends, at work, or at school, Natalia always stays present and passionate in the face of any challenge. I'm so proud of everything she's achieved and impressed by the kind, smart, and beautiful young woman I've seen her become."
It's no surprise since when ET spoke with Natalia at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party in 2022, she gushed about "loving" the college experience, including rooming with her pal, Storm Reid, which Bryant called "the best thing that happened ever."
"I’m loving everything. I feel like this whole year flew by so fast," she said of her freshman year. "It was everything I expected and honestly more. It was just everything, so I’m so happy to be with everybody that I like. I’ve just loved everyone that I’ve met."
"I’m loving being able to room with each other," she added of Storm, adding that she's "a huge fan" of her roomie's show, Euphoria.
Though both students are busy with their careers, Natalia told ET that their college experience has "been pretty normal, so I’m actually so happy about that."
"We've been able to find the best friends and been able to establish a good, core group," she said, adding that her must-have collegiate item is "a good pair of sneakers 'cause you do a lot of walking around campus."
Natalia's Town & Country issue hits newsstands on Jan. 23.
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