Natalia Bryant is the future.

As the eldest daughter of the late basketball icon, Kobe Bryant, living up to her family’s legacy can come with a lot of weight. Still, the 21-year-old is blazing her own path to become Hollywood’s next leading director.

In an interview with Town & Country, the University of Southern California film student reflected on childhood memories of her parents encouraging her to create bedtime stories for herself. Being left to her own imagination at a young age has since inspired Bryant to create stories and pursue a career in directing.

“My parents would ask me, ‘Do you have a story?’ And I’d say, ‘Oh, okay! There was this princess...’” she told the publication. “I’ve always loved world-building.”

The USC third-year student is now on track to becoming a director, with hopes to use her schooling to develop “girlhood and coming-of-age stories,” spotlighting the directorial influences of Greta Gerwig (Barbie) and Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation).

For her junior thesis, Bryant recalls developing a five-and-a-half-minute narrative short film depicting fictional sisters dealing with absent parents during their school graduation. The story depicts the unique bond shared between sisters and is an angle she notes had no correlation to her upbringing. “I told my mom, ‘It’s not about you guys, I swear!’” she says. “I got to thank her for being such a supportive parent.”

While her family name has opened many doors, the Los Angeles native is no stranger to hard work. Last summer, Bryant interned for Beyoncé’s Parkwood Entertainment company, assisting with creating imagery for the historic Renaissance Tour. “It was such an amazing experience,” she says. “You can just talk to anybody in the office, and they’re amazing.”

With her having a “foot in both worlds” of fashion and film, Bryant isn’t confining her artistic gifts to just one genre of expression. “They’re both collaborative, and you meet so many different people,” she shares. “It makes the world feel smaller.”

“What I’ve always loved about film is that it’s such a collaborative art form,” she adds, “and I view modeling the same way.”

It’s safe to say, the Bryant family legacy is in safe hands.

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Featured image by Kevin Winter/WireImage for Parkwood

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