Capitalizing on Beauty - Cindy Crawford is Becoming

Supermodel, savvy business professional and now, author.

Cindy Crawford, Author of ‘Becoming’

Fashion designer, Michael Kors summed up the supermodel's impact, "Cindy changed the perception of the, 'Sexy, American Girl,' from classic blue eyed blonde to a more sultry brunette with brains, charm and professionalism to spare."

October, 2015 - If you grew up in the late 80's, early 90's, then you knew Cindy Crawford as a household name. I remember her well, as we were only a year apart in age. When I first saw her on the covers of the supermarket magazines, I identified with her because we both had long brown hair and brown eyes and like me, she was shapely, not emaciated. I liked that she wasn't just beautiful, she was smart and sexy and she seemed to embrace it all with confidence. She also dated and married (briefly) my crush, Richard Gere and I knew that we probably had a lot in common, at least with our taste in strong, intense and complicated men.  As she matured through the years, (as did I), we both divorced our 'complicated' men and continued on our path of discovery.

After repeatedly featured on the cover of Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Allure, Elle, People and W Magazine, her face became a sought-after commodity for beauty and fashion brands. I've always been impressed with Cindy Crawford and her ability to capitalize on her beauty. One would expect this, coming from a Supermodel, however not all Supermodels are able to parlay their good looks into the branding of products for themselves. I think the fact that she remarried and became a mother motivated her desire to provide for her family - motherhood will inspire one this way.  After she quit modeling in 2000, she has offered celebrity endorsement to various products and in 2005 created her own line of beauty products called, Meaningful Beauty. At the same time, she launched her own line of family-friendly furniture under the name,  'Cindy Crawford Home Collection.' I know this, because I bought her faux-suede light blue queen sofa sleeper for my family guest room. I've had the couch since 2004, and it has held up, outside of the fact that is now belongs to our Dalmation - he loves it too.

Beauty, brains and branding - what a combination. Cindy Crawford graduated in 1984 as Valedictorian from her mid-western high school and was awarded an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University - really!  She dropped out after one quarter to pursue a full-time career as a model, signing with Elite Modeling Agency in New York. The rest is history.

If you find Cindy Crawford as fascinating as we do, then you can meet her at her upcoming book signing in Los Angeles, CA at Barnes and Noble. She will be there with her new book,, 'Becoming'. It's the story of her life, experiences and includes a collection of images from her own archives.