'It didn't feel right for me,' the model admitted of music.
Sofia Richie Grainge opted out of following in her famous father's footsteps. Lionel Richie and Diane Alexander's 24-year-old daughter covers the September issue of Town & Country and reveals in the accompanying article how she came to the decision to follow her own path.
"I spent a lot of time just trying to find my place in the world," she says. "I think everyone wants to be like their parents when they're growing up, and I admired my dad so much, and that drove me down a music path for a moment. But it didn't feel right for me."
"And then everyone told me, 'You should be an actor!' I tried that for a period, but that wasn't me either," she continues. "I didn't have the experience, and I didn't want to be one of those kid celebrities that got the role because my dad is who he is. So I was like, 'You know what? I know I’m not cut out for this. Let me just be myself.'"
That decision led Sofia to become a model and influencer, and, as will be announced soon, start a fashion line. Even so, she still has plenty of lessons to take away from her dad's career.
"I learned how to deal with people knowing who you are from my dad. He handles it with such grace. He embraces everyone who comes up to him. He's appreciative, he's thankful," she says. "He's taught me to never have that 'Oh god, not today' attitude. He's another level of megastar, and my whole life I've watched him. I've never seen him say no to a picture. I've never seen him be rude to anyone who walks up to him on the street. That's been my role model."
On a personal level, Sofia's fame exploded upon her April wedding to Elliot Grainge.
"For me my wedding wasn't an event. It was my wedding," she says, before sharing how she envisioned the multi-day event in France. "I wanted it to feel timeless. I pored over photos of classic royal weddings and pulled in little things that I wanted."
She wore three custom-made Chanel dresses for the occasion. Only after she said "I do" did she give fans a peek inside the lavish nuptials.
"We don't live out our whole lives on Instagram. We know when to turn it off," she says of herself and her new husband, before praising Elliot, the founder of an independent record label, as a valuable resource on the social media front. "He’s good with social media because of his work with musicians. He understands TikTok, so he's a great sounding board for me."
No matter what comes next for her, Sofia is excited for the future.
"The truth is I've had a pretty lucky life, and I always try to remember that," she says. "It's already been more than I could have dreamed of."
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