On Bravo’s website, your role is defined as a working model. You are definitely working in every sense of the word. Since you’ve been on the show, you’ve launched The Bailey Agency School of Fashion, co-wrote a book and just recently released your own doll. How do you balance all of that with being a mother and a wife?
It truly is a struggle. Any successful businessperson is going to make sacrifices. My husband and I make sure we make time for each other. I always try to make sure I put in my “mommy time” with my daughter [Noelle]. I think it’s a challenge for couples who have a business and it’s difficult to manage it all.
To what do you attribute your career success?
Hard work. I am the hardest working woman in show business [laughs]. I’ve been working since I’ve been old enough to work. I set goals for myself that I want to achieve and willing to put in the work and sacrifices.
You and Peter have a really strong chemistry and friendship, why do you think you guys are so compatible?
You know, we want a lot of the same things. You have to be compatible as a couple and you want to have the same things. That’s half of it right there. If you end up marrying someone who doesn’t want the same things, it’s hard to be married to someone. You have to have something in common you are both working towards— and we do. We like a lot of the same places, travel, and go to the movies. We have our own businesses. We like making money. We like family. We do have a lot of things in common and I do think that’s important in a relationship.
What have you learned about yourself since being on the show?
Since being on the show I’ve learned that I am very flexible. Within reason I can pretty much get along with anyone. If someone is just unreasonable or we just don’t get along, for the most part I can at least try and find a neutral zone with the people I am around on the show. We may not be great friends, but we’re not disturbing anything.
Your daughter has famous parents, how has that impacted her? Does she talk about what career she’d like to pursue?
My daughter wants to be an actress the same as her dad {Leon] and she also loves singing. We are both from the entertainment industry, me coming up from the fashion industry. I would love for her to follow in my footsteps but now it looks like she’s leaning toward her dad’s footsteps.
What prompted you to release your own doll?
From my Bailey Agency School of Fashion. … Most of my students have kids that come in that are 5 and up. My core is probably [ages] 8 to 15. I grew up playing with dolls and I never had a doll that looked like me, especially with an Afro, and that was important to me to have in my doll.
What impact would you like to make with the “rocker chic” likeness of yourself?
There are so many layers to me. I can be a “rocker chick” one day and Revlon the next. There are a lot of different layers when it comes to me. I try to show all of them because it shows who I am.
