- Natalia Bryant is Teen Vogue’s September cover star, marking her first magazine cover.
- Natalia said it was “bittersweet” to talk about her late father in the interview.
- “He was just like the best girl dad ever,” she said of Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash.
Kobe Bryant’s eldest daughter, Natalia Bryant, talked about her late father and sister in an interview with Teen Vogue for the magazine’s September cover.
The spread marks the aspiring model — who signed with IMG models in February of 2021 — and soon to be USC-student’s first photo shoot and interview for a magazine, as Danyel Smith, who interviewed Natalia for the magazine, wrote on Twitter.
Natalia, 18, talked about her hopes for her career and her love of volleyball in the spread.
She also opened up to Smith about her late father and sister, saying that talking about her dad was “bittersweet.”
“I love talking about my dad,” she told Smith. “It’s bittersweet, but I enjoy talking about him more than it’s sad for me.”
Kobe and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant were killed in a helicopter crash in January 2020, alongside seven others. They are survived by his wife Vanessa Bryant, Natalia, and Kobe and Vanessa’s youngest daughters, 4-year-old Bianka, and 2-year-old Capri.
Natalia talked about Kobe’s role as a self-proclaimed “girl dad” in her interview with Teen Vogue, reflecting on how much fun she had with him.
“He was just like the best girl dad ever,” she said.
His fun as a girl dad stood out to her after he took her to see “Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker” in 2019, which inspired her goal of studying film in college, as she shared with Teen Vogue.
“He was just letting me play my playlist and jam out to Taylor Swift the whole ride back, and talk about ‘Star Wars’ too,” she said. “It was so much fun.”
Kobe presented Swift with her banner at the Staples Center for “most sold-out performances” in 2015, as ESPN reported, and she later sent Natalia a “Folklore” cardigan in 2020.
Allen Berezovsky/Getty Images
Natalia also told Teen Vogue that her father and sister’s deaths led her to stop playing volleyball, though she previously wanted to play at the collegiate level.
“I quit volleyball after the accident because I was so … a lot was going on at that time,” she said. “I knew I didn’t … love volleyball as much as they love basketball.”
Smith also reported that Natalia talked about her sister Gianna in the present tense during her interview for Teen Vogue, although it’s been over a year since her sister died.
As she told Teen Vogue, Natalia is now focused on studying film, pursuing modeling, and helping her mom and sisters through their grief.
“[For] my little sisters [we’re] trying to keep that memory for them,” Natalia said to Teen Vogue. “And also just trying to remember to live out every day the way they would.”