‘They Made my Childhood as Normal as Possible’: Natalia Bryant Opens up on Growing up With a Famous Dad

Coming into her own. Natalia Bryant, the eldest child of the late Kobe Bryant and Vanessa Bryant, opened up about her life before and after her father and sister Gianna Bryant’s untimely deaths.

“Growing up, my parents made it as normal as possible,” the model, 18, told Teen Vogue in her September 2021 cover story. “Thank God they did. It’s not, ‘Oh, she’s Natalia Bryant, she’s Kobe Bryant’s daughter.’ A lot of times they saw me as, ‘She’s just Nani.’”

Natalia reflected on her close bond with her dad, a former NBA player, who died alongside Gianna and seven others in a January 2020 helicopter crash.

“He was just, like, the best girl dad ever,” she recalled of a 2019 outing with Kobe to see Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. “He was just letting me play my playlist and jam out to Taylor Swift the whole ride back, and talk about Star Wars too. It was so much fun.”

While it would be understandable if Natalia found it difficult to speak about her father, it is healing for her. “I love talking about my dad,” she told the outlet. “It’s bittersweet, but I enjoy talking about him more than it’s sad for me.”