For kids of the ‘80s, there were few teen icons whose popularity rivaled that of Molly Ringwald. Best known for her starring roles in John Hughes classics Sixteen Candles, Pretty in Pink, and The Breakfast Club, she was beloved for her relatable portrayal of the American teen—as well as her undeniable girl-next-door charm.
Fast forward 35 years to present day, and the actor is now a mother to three teens herself. Having married author and actor Panio Gianopoulos, the couple now share 12-year-old twins Adele and Roman Gianopoulos, as well as 17-year-old Mathilda Gianopoulos.
The eldest of the three is now making her own way in the entertainment world, with multiple modeling jobs under her belt and a reported desire to follow her mother’s footsteps into acting. Read on to see Mathilda now, and to hear what Molly Ringwald has to say about parenting her teenage kids!
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Mathilda has recently taken up modeling.
Krista Kennell/Patrick McMullan via Getty ImagesRingwald released three instant-hit movies and received a Golden Globe nomination all before her 18th birthday, so it’s no surprise that her daughter, Mathilda, is also getting an early start in the entertainment industry.
Mathilda made her fashion debut during 2017’s New York Fashion Week (NYFW), where she modeled for J.Crew alongside Julianne Moore’s daughter, Liv Freundlich. In support of her daughter's first foray into modeling, Ringwald shared some behind-the-scenes snaps on Instagram, jokingly referring to herself as a “stage mom,” and complimenting her daughter’s “natural beauty.”
Mathilda also presented Andrew Warren’s Just Drew collection, joining other celebrity kidsAva Dash (daughter of Damon Dash and Rachel Roy), Kyra Kennedy (daughter of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Mary Kennedy) and Ming Lee Simmons (daughter of Russell Simmons and Kimora Lee). Speaking about the show, Warren told Page Six, “I always try to use different and unique girls than everyone else to show off my brand, and not use the same ones that are doing every single NYFW show. It’s about being different, and that’s important to me.”
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Ringwald admits that parenting teens sometimes leaves her “perplexed.”
Thomas Concordia/Getty Images for Style360Even if you built your career on being a relatable teen, parenting one still isn’t easy. “I thought I would’ve had a little bit more edge or info or intel or something," Ringwald shared with HuffPost last year. "But I feel like I’m very often just as confused and perplexed as anyone else.”
The Pretty in Pink actress added that now that she's a parent, she sees her old films in a whole new light. “Whenever I watch any of the movies that I did when I was younger, I always sympathize with the parents. You know, before when I did them, it was all about the teenagers, but now all I can think about is, ‘oh, their poor parents!’ It must’ve been really hard for them,” she told Yahoo! News.
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She thinks being a teen today is even harder than it was in the ‘80s.
Though Ringwald's famed characters endured tough teen moments and harrowing heartbreaks, the actress says she thinks that modern day teens have it harder than ever. “I think it’s a lot harder to be a teenager today," she told HuffPost. "I feel like all of the insecurities, the highs and lows, the way that teenagers feel is the same. But there are so many other aspects that aggravate their lives.”
Specifically, Ringwald feels that social media puts additional stress on today's youth. “It makes it harder to focus, so they miss out on a lot of great things,” she said.
The two bond over their love of acting and books.
Chance Yeh/FilmMagic via Getty ImagesDespite the generational differences, the "Brat Pack" member says she and her teen still have plenty in common. “My elder daughter wants to be an actress. She’s pretty serious about it,” Ringwald told Yahoo! News, adding that she supports her Mathilda’s dream.
The two also share a love of reading—something Ringwald says helped her through her own teenage years. “My daughter has amazing taste in books. She loves Kurt Vonnegut, which I’d say the average 16-year-old isn’t reading today,” she told HuffPost. “Books gave me a lot of solace [as a teen] and made me feel less alone in the world. They gave me that feeling that there’s something else out there,” Ringwald continued. “I feel like that’s so important for teenagers to have that feeling―that it’s not always going to be like this, that the world is a big place and there’s a lot of things to do and places to go,” she added.
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