Vogue magazine features four powerful and inspiring mothers (one mother-to-be) on its January covers, and we are so here for it.
Actress and filmmaker Greta Gerwig, fashion designer Stella McCartney, model Ashley Graham and rapper Cardi B were all photographed with their most precious of work – their babies.
"This month, Vogue celebrates four fearless creative forces, role models and mothers with a quartet of covers," the magazine captioned the covers, which feature ethereal shots of the women with their young ones.
All of them were also interviewed by the outlet and had much to say about balancing career and motherhood.
'Moved by women who’ve claimed all of it'
Actress and filmmaker Greta Gerwig shares her son with director Noah Baumbach. Harold was born in March and napped and nursed while his mom worked on her film "Little Women."
During her interview with "Vogue," Gerwig realizes she needs to go home to feed the baby.
“Everything happens in these 90-minute to two-hour increments between feedings," Gerwig says.
She also admits to being scared about being a mother “in terms of what it would mean for what I was able to do.
”But she found camaraderie on fellow cover-star Cardi B's Instagram page.
“She’d do videos about how her hair looked better, but then she was mad because she had terrible heartburn. Everything. I would eat it up," Gerwig says. "I’ve just been very moved by women who’ve claimed all of it.”
Gerwig nails motherhood when she compares it to filmmaking. “Yes, I think that feeling of forever being underqualified and kind of awed by the thing.”
'Be the boss'
Rapper Cardi B shares her 1-year-old daughter Kulture with rapper Offset. She is working on her second album and the pressure is on after the success of "Invasion of Privacy."
And this time, she has more to talk about, including motherhood.
"I wonder if people are gonna relate to the new things, to the new life, to the new (expletive) that I gotta talk about now," she tells "Vogue."
Becoming a mom has only made Cardi B more fierce.
“I think motherhood got her more focused," Offset says of Cardi B. "I always tell her, 'don’t follow the comments.' But she’s been outspoken on things since before she was making music – she’s not ever putting on, she’s not ever being cool. At the end of the day, she’s still going to rap about the same (expletive), which is what it’s like being a woman.”
Cardi B says her success and work ethic is all for her daughter.
"I give my daughter so much love, and I’m setting her up for a future,” she says. Cardi B isn't sure what that is for Kulture, but whatever it is, she wants her to own it.
"If my daughter wants to go to college, that’s okay, but I just want her to be an owner of whatever the (expletive) she wants to own. Just be an owner. Be the boss.”
'I'm a big hot sweaty mess'
Fashion designer Stella McCartney shares four children with her husband, Alasdhair Willis: Miller, 14, Bailey, 13, Beckett, 11, and Reiley, 9. Sure, she is the daughter of Paul McCartney, but more important is her 100% vegan fashion line bearing her name: Stella McCartney.
The job is something is she does in between being a mom, which includes dropping her four children off at school five days a week, she tells "Vogue."
“I start at 6:30 a.m., and by the time I get to work [by bicycle], I feel like I’m literally done for the day. I’m a big hot sweaty mess, too,” McCartney says.
“When you’ve got a job and you’ve got kids,” she says, “it’s when you get to see them, and you have to wake up super early and engage in that moment. Then I try and squeeze in some exercise, and then I go to work. And I try and get back for the bookending of being a mum.”
'There's just this camaraderie'
Model Ashley Graham is expecting a son with her husband, Justin Ervin, and she is learning the force of the mom army.
“There’s just this camaraderie. It’s a secret society that I didn’t know about. I was hiding my pregnancy for the first four months. I’ve always had control over my body—when everyone else wanted to dictate what it should be, I took full control over it—but I had this life inside of me saying, It’s not yours anymore, it’s mine. And you have to just succumb," Graham tells Vogue.
Even with her unflappable confidence, she realized she needed friends to find comfort in her changing body.
"I felt like I didn’t have anyone to talk to. I was gaining weight rapidly. And I felt alone. And the one piece of advice that my stylist, Jordan Foster, gave me was, Make pregnant friends. None of my friends were in relationships, let alone pregnant. And now I have nine pregnant friends.”
While it would be "on-brand" for Graham to have a daughter, she is thrilled to welcome a baby boy, which she revealed on "Ellen" and to the magazine.
“I don’t know anything about boys, so I’m so excited,” Graham says before Ervin adds, “She owed me a boy. What with all of this wonderful, divine, feminine energy she has around her 24/7, I want a little sidekick.”