Leni Klum is Heidi’s eldest child with Seal (her DNA comes from Flavio Briatore, but Heidi broke up with him while pregnant and she emphatically says Seal — who was present in the delivery room — is Leni’s father). Apparently, this is not merely her magazine debut; it’s her MODELING debut. Nice connections if you can get them, eh? Although the thing is, it doesn’t mean she won’t be a great model, or that she won’t work hard at it. Networking is a huge part of every corner business; who you know often makes a difference, whether it’s how you hear about a job or who recommends you for one. In that sense Leni Klum isn’t much different than anyone else in the world. It’s just that the leg up she’s getting is the length of a telephone pole. All of which is to say I don’t spite her this opportunity one bit, and am curious to see what she does with it.

It’s a bit hard to predict that from this cover. She certainly looks confident enough, and self-assured, and the bright neon palette sings. But she also has her mother smooshing up against her cheek and all but crowding her out of the frame. The whole thing — including the American Vogue headline about them being mirror images — seems designed to be one gigantic visual mataphor: They seem to be wearing different pieces of the same suit, their poses are nearly identical, their hair is mostly the same. It creates the aura that Leni is a kid padding around the house in her mom’s cast-offs, hoping one day to grow into them, which as metaphors go is SO on-the-nose that it’s giving me a zit.

You get a better view of Leni here, at least. She reminds me of someone, and I’m not sure who it is — not Heidi, weirdly. It’s Selena Gomez but mixed with another person, and I can’t get my head around who that person is. Aimee Teegarden (Coach’s and Tami’s daughter) from Friday Night Lights? Help. Oh, and Vogue.com did a summed-up version of the cover story here in English, but if your German is strong then here’s the original. Mine… is not. Ich bin ein Fugliner. That’s all I’ve got.

[Photo: Vogue Germany/Chris Colls]