Aoki Lee Simmons Addresses Criticism For Pursuing A Modeling Career While Studying At Harvard: I Would Like To Change The Idea That You Can’t Be Smart & Pretty

August 3, 2022 by Ariel Whitely in Celebrity Kids with 0 Comments

Aoki Lee Simmons

Aoki Lee Simmons Addresses Criticism For Pursuing A Modeling Career While Studying At Harvard: I Would Like To Change The Idea That You Can’t Be Smart & Pretty

Aoki Lee Simmons is proud to be a model and an Ivy League student, and she recently addressed why she thinks a person can be interested in both.

This week (August 1), 19-year-old Harvard student Aoki Lee Simmons, who’s the daughter of model Kimora Lee Simmons and record executive Russell Simmons, responded to a user on TikTok who asked why someone “so articulate and obviously educated” would choose to be a model.

Aoki Lee Simmons, Kimora Lee Simmons

Aoki Lee Simmons appeared to not understand why someone can’t embrace both interests and have to choose between being creative or pursuing higher education. In a follow-up video, the model began her video by clarifying that “models aren’t uneducated and inarticulate,” before sharing why she entertains her two interests. She explained:

“Why am I going into a field that doesn’t necessarily require a degree, or require a whole lot of book smarts, when I have a lot of education? One, because I love it. I think we should normalize you liking something. You don’t have to do what you’re immediately good at.”

Aoki Lee went on and shared a time when she was naturally a great volleyball player because she was tall, but that doesn’t mean she wants to pursue the sport as a career or become a pro athlete. The Ivy Leaguer said:

“You can be good at something and not want to do it forever. You can be bad at something and still pursue it. Hard work will beat talent when talent doesn’t work hard. You don’t have to be immediately talented to go into a field, and you may end up the best one through hard work.”

Aoki Lee continued:

“I really want us to move toward a future where young women are not being asked this question. Like, not being asked, ‘Why did you follow your more creative passion even though you’re smart?’”

She added:

“I would like to change the idea that you can’t be smart and pretty, or you can’t be smart and enjoy your looks, or enjoy a creative/beauty/fashion-based career. One, that requires plenty of smarts. Two, you can be two kinds of people in one person. That’s really who I am.”

Aoki Lee Simmons

Aoki Lee, who made her runway debut last year walking for Pyer Moss’s Paris couture show, concluded her video by encouraging her followers to pursue everything that they love, whatever that may be. She shared:

“Do whatever you want. Get a degree, don’t use it. Get a degree, use it later. Don’t get a degree, never use it. Get a degree later. Do whatever you want to do. Nothing is a waste of your talent… if you are enjoying it, and you’re happy, and you’re living your life, then whatever path took you there was the right one and nothing was wasted.”