Yolanda Foster: How I Keep Bella Grounded

Families featured on any Real Housewives franchise are never your truly typical family, and the Hadid-Foster clan is no exception—but only to a certain extent.

Yolanda Foster has built quite the life for herself. The Dutch beauty started off as a freelance hair stylist, and when she was asked to take the runway last minute as a stand-in, that's when her star started to rise. Quickly spotted by Eileen Ford of Ford modeling agency, Yolanda began a life of strutting her stuff on runways around the world.

But nothing was ever given to the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star. Her success is the product of some good luck mixed in with some very hard work—a sentiment she's passed on to both of her daughters, supermodels Gigi and Bella.

Both girls are now Los Angeles transplants in the Big Apple, somewhat of a surprise. "People who start in L.A. end up in L.A.," Bella tells Du Jour. For Bella it was about following her dream—she now studies photography at the Parsons School of Design—which, she thinks, makes her fit right in with the rest of the native New Yorkers. "Everyone here is too busy living their dream to notice you."

And despite growing up in a sprawling mansion on the cliffs of Malibu, Yolanda is teaching Bella that life sometimes is more important focusing on simple independence—learning how to build a budget, or change a lightbulb, for instance.

But there's always time for fun and games, especially together, even when working on a photo shoot. Making goofy voices and doing silly voices, the mother-daughter duo got too caught up with each other to take the direction of the photographer. "Sorry, we weren't paying attention," a laughing Yolanda offers as an apology.

[Source: Du Jour]