Coming Up Rosie

From supermodel to savvy businesswoman and mother – Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is in full bloom.

- Tiffany Bakker

ROSIE HUNTINGTON-WHITELEY KNOWS PEOPLE MIGHT HATE HER ON INSTAGRAM. “The problem with social media is so much of it is not real, but look, I find myself having a little unfollow of people, too,” says Huntington-Whiteley with a laugh down the line from the Los Angeles home she shares with British actor Jason Statham and their 19-month-old son, Jack. “It’s funny because a lot of people I’ve met, their online presence is very different to who they are in reality – in good and bad ways – but it does make me think about my own presence online and what it means. I want to talk to more women about it, and understand how I can do things better.”

With a particular knack for a selfie, pervy on-set snippets and the occasional family snap, the model-turned-entrepreneur’s Instagram has amassed almost nine million followers, but she says her awareness of how she presents online really kicked in when she was percolating ideas for her online beauty forum, Rose Inc.

“I wanted people to come away from the site feeling good and empowered,” she says. “So I thought, how can I build something beyond my social media and how can I capture an audience and how can I speak to them directly?”

There was also a much more personal reason for kicking off the business – which launched in May 2018 – when she did. Huntington-Whiteley and Statham had become parents to son, Jack, in June of 2017, and she wanted a business that allowed her to work at home and not be “on a plane every second week”. “I needed to be with my family. And it’s the same with Jason; there’s a lot more communication about where we’re going to be and how we’re going to make things work. Both of us can’t just take off like we have in the past.”