But unlike her superslim half sister Armageddon ingenue Liv, 21, this Tyler didn't inherit her dad's scrawny physique. That doesn't bug her, either. In fact, it has given the 5'7½", 145-lb. daughter of Steven, 50, and model Cyrinda Foxe, 46, a chance to step out from behind her famous relatives' swizzle-stick shadows. As one of five models in plus-size clothier Lane Bryant's splashy new ad campaign for its Venezia Jeans Clothing Co. casual line, the aspiring actress is getting attention as one of fashion's latest don't-wannabe waifs. Mia is "just as beautiful" as Liv, says Lane Bryant marketing VP Chris Hansen. "She's a very ripe, full, lovely woman who doesn't try to hide her body."
Papa Tyler is proud. "It felt so good to see Mia up there, finally getting the attention she deserves," he said backstage after her Aug. 4 runway debut. "It must have been frustrating for her, surrounded by a skinny rock-star father and a model mother."
Not exactly. "I never thought, 'Oh God, I have to look like Kate Moss to be accepted,' " says Tyler. She did go through periods of "living on cottage cheese and melba toast," she says. But she'd sworn off such habits by age 16. "I realized I just had to be myself," she says. "If I stay healthy and take care of myself, then I'm fine."
Tyler's gotta-be-me attitude is also in the genes. Steven wooed Foxe, then part of Andy Warhol's free-spirited circle, away from her husband, singer and actor David Johansen (Scrooged). They wed in 1978, three months before Mia was born, and split three years later. Mia and her mother settled in New Hampshire "so I could grow up a normal kid," she says. Still, she had a taste or two of the high life. "I went to Studio 54 when I was 4," she says. "My favorite thing to do was go upstairs and play with the photocopier machine. I'd make copies of my head or my hands and hand them out to people on the dance floor."
Mia first met Liv, Tyler's daughter from a 1976 romance with model Bebe Buell, at an Aerosmith concert in 1988. Raised by Buell and rocker Todd Rundgren, Liv didn't then know that Steven was her father. "We played and pretended we were sisters," recalls Mia. "That night I went home and told my mom I'd met this girl Liv." Soon after, the girls' mothers told them of their kinship. "Liv came running in," says Mia, "and we hugged and cried."
Relocating to New York City in 1990, Mia briefly indulged a wild side—dabbling in drugs and going oh club crawls—while a student at Manhattan's Professional Children's School. ("I don't mess with anything anymore," she says.) She also studied acting, landing a part in the 1997 pilot of CBS's Michael Hayes. That led to appearances on MTV's House of Style and to the Lane Bryant gig, which has prompted a flood of new modeling auditions. "It's hard work, but it's fun," she says.
Tyler, who is dating aspiring musician Sean Zanni, 23, lives in a tiny, one-bedroom Upper East Side apartment. She and Liv remain close and hope to team up in a movie someday. But don't expect mirror images. "I feel beautiful this way," says Mia. "I figure this is what I am—and that's the way it's gonna be."
Samantha Miller
Natasha Stoynoff in New York City
- Contributors:
- Natasha Stoynoff.
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