Helena Christensen used to have “family showers”.
The Danish supermodel admits her upbringing wasn’t that conventional but says it was a very happy time because she, her sister and her parents all bonded.
“I grew up in a very emotional household, in the sense that we expressed exactly how we felt proudly. We were always traveling, even when I was a child, always in some airport sitting on suitcases with my sister, leaning up against one another at 3am in Bangkok,” she said. “Nothing was ever planned.
“My mum would be sitting next to someone she’d just met on the train and the next thing we’d be traveling across the world to meet them. It was total togetherness. We even took family showers. It felt like we did a lot of things together. Was my upbringing normal? Maybe not?”
While she had a happy childhood, Helena admits she was quite shy when growing up and is still quite self-conscious now.
“I was shy as a child. My mother would send my to theater group to learn how to express myself more,” she said.
“When I was very little me and my sister were child models but I don’t even remember doing it. For some reason, it didn’t bother me. The shyness was more about people. I’d always be observing rather than involving myself. Very often now, if I’m with a group of people, I end up in the corner.”