Kimora Lee Simmons knows the value of confidence. The Smile Train ambassador shared why she donates her time and resources to the cleft-focused organization with ESSENCE at their 25th-anniversary gala at Cipriani.
Smile Train supports local medical professionals with educational and material resources so that they can provide free cleft surgery and comprehensive cleft care to children globally. They take a holistic approach to care, providing aftercare to patients and supporting them through multiple surgeries in some cases. The event helped raise funds for all of their operations, including 3D-printed cleft stimulation kits. These help surgeons complete clef procedures, potentially limiting the risk of certain complications. Black patients have significantly higher complications, according to theJournal of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery.
Smile Train announced that they had completed their two millionth free surgery at the event. The news was met with thunderous applause from paddle-raising donors prepared to lighten their pockets for the cause.
She was presented the Smile Train Goodwill Ambassador award by her daughters , Ming Lee and Aoki Lee. Lee Simmons described seeing a patient blossom and imitating the model’s runway walk after her surgery during her speech. The patient was planning her future after seeing herself in a new light.
“I have Stephanie all on my phone doing the catwalk,” Lee Simmons said excitedly.
“Smile Train allows these young people from infants all the way to adulthood to kind of reclaim a life that they never even knew they could have,” she continued. “These people have been transformed through these surgeries. I’ve seen it. I’ve been in the field. I’ve been with their families.”
Lee Simons acknowledged that while inner beauty was paramount, exteriors have an undeniable impact on a person’s experience. “Beauty really does start from the inside, what’s outside really does matter a lot too.”
She stated that her work is ultimately more about how the patients feel about how they look than how they look. “There’s as many different beauties as people.”
“All of these things are about putting your best foot forward and doing the best that you can for yourself,” she added. Lee Simmons taps into her own inner confidence to tackle life’s challenges.
“I tried on my journey right to say look, no one’s gonna have your back, if you don’t have your back,” she said.
She wants women to harness the power of self-confidence and independence, whether they are partnered or not. “As a woman, I have to stand on my own two feet,” she said. “You cannot rely on a man for your whole life. It doesn’t matter.
Clef patients can face bullying, something Lee Simmons faced growing up in Missouri.
She admits “it can be quite hurtful” to face judgment from people who don’t know her.”
She advises people to “be resilient and be beautiful and be shining in all of your glory, even when you feel stepped on or looked down upon or downtrodden.”
She shared advice for how to use confidence to improve your life in her 2006 book Fabulosity: What It Is & How to Get It. She described it as lessons for her “thirteen-year-old self.”
Lee Simons has been a longtime supporter of organizations that center on improving people’s lives, including Dress For Success, where she has worked to help formerly incarcerated women build wardrobes as they prepare for a return to the workplace. “It’s so important for me to be able to give back. I’ve been doing it all my life, since before I had kids,” she said
Host Jeanie Mai joked that she would rather see the smiles transformed by Smile Train than usual ones she encounters in Hollywood. “Those smiles are a lunch of veneers and lip fillers. I’m ready for some smiles that are really going to light up this world,” she said after climbing the podium in a peach-sculpted dress. Afterwards Jordin Sparks did an energetic set that included a cover of Frank Sinatra’s When You’re Smiling, suiting the occasion. The audience sang along to her hit before Sparks encouraged guests to head to the chapel and enjoy DJ Jazzy Jeff turning out the afterparty.
Mai was not the only one in a playful mood.
Lee Simmons joked that her unfiltered personality was a perfect fit for fundraising. “I have a big mouth, so the least I could do is beg people for money,” she said, flashing her own winning smile.
You can learn more about Smile Train’s mission here.