Christy Turlington Burns Talks Activism, Maternal Health with T Style Magazine Singapore
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Supermodel Christy Turlington covers the April 2020 issue of New York Times Style Magazine Singapore, styled by Jack Wang and Jumius Wong in Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Givenchy, Saint Laurent, Salvatore Ferragamo and more. Photographer Chris Colls is behind the lens, with Renée Batchelor conducting the interview: Christy Turlington Burns Finds Her Voice.
AOC has tracked Christy’s activism for over a decade, with a particular focus on her global support for maternal health.
When asked by Batchelor what makes a successful model, she answers, “Authenticity, confidence and interests outside of the industry.” It was this very interest in everything from comparative religion — which she studied at New York University — to fitness — she runs marathons and practises yoga — that would inspire and lead her in her eventual path to activism.
Turlington Burns returned to school at age 25. “From the moment I wasn’t a student modelling in her spare time, I craved education. It took me a while to commit to full-time but that’s what I needed and wanted. I had too many interests and couldn’t wait to explore them. School was the best path for me to dig deeper into many of them,” she says. Her spirit of activism was awakened and Christy never looked back on her resolve to make a difference in the world. “As soon as I realised I had a voice, I used mine. I always had plenty of issues I cared about but found that I had so much more to contribute when I had a personal connection or life experience to draw from.” She advocated for El Salvador, her mother’s home country, and appeared in anti-smoking campaigns, determined to make some positive action connected to her father’s death from lung cancer.
Her biggest commitment of all — global maternal health — was activated by her own post-delivery complications with her daughter Grace.
Turlington Burns believes that the issue of mothers needing support is relevant to the whole society or social unit. “I can’t think of a more important time to support a human than when they are carrying the life of another. When we look at the cycle of life and consider when is the optimal time to impact a life, it seems quite obvious that getting this right will help to ensure a solid foundation for the rest of one’s life,” she says.
The issue of maternal health is not only a problem in the undeveloped world.
“The U.S. is one of very few industrialised countries with a rising maternal mortality ratio. The rates have been increasing steadily for over two decades but only recently has this become a serious concern for policy-makers.”
Turlington Burns is always quick to describe herself as a humanist and more than just a feminist. However, she always describes the problems in feminist, patriarchal terms. Whatever works, Christy. Just so you describe the problem correctly. Note— most people don’t know that Christy and Karlie Kloss are very close friends. I believe that Turlington was influential in Karlie’s decision to leave Victoria’s Secret and activate her own feminist activism.
“We believe that women should not only survive childbirth, but thrive in motherhood. The sad reality is that most women on this planet are not thriving. When women don’t thrive, how can their children or the people around them thrive?” she asks. “The goal is gender equality. When we look at most countries and the problems they face, the root causes are often the same. There is an imbalance of power and women and children tend to be on the lower end of the totem pole,” Turlington concludes.
Read the entire interview at T Style Singapore.
