Behati Prinsloo‘s introduction to motherhood wasn’t without its emotional challenges.
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The 30-year-old model opened up to Net-A-Porter’s PORTER Edit for the magazine’s latest cover story, recalling a tough time after giving birth to her first child, daughter Dusty Rose, in September 2016.
“After my first baby, I had a little postpartum depression and it was difficult to get back into normal life, but after the second one everything felt so much easier,” said Prinsloo, who welcomed her and husband Adam Levine‘s second child, daughter Gio Grace, in February 2018.
“It was easier for me to work out. Breastfeeding was easier,” explained the Namibian-born Victoria’s Secret Angel.
“I’ve been modeling for 15 years and when I got pregnant I didn’t want to do anything, I wanted to enjoy my time,” she explained. “I really liked being pregnant and not working. When I got pregnant the second time, I just did the same thing.”
“I did the Victoria’s Secret show eight months after I had Gio,” Prinsloo continued of getting back into the modeling game after her second child. “I felt so empowered. I was like, ‘I can do this, I have two kids.’ It was a beautiful journey; I loved being pregnant and I enjoyed getting back to work.”
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As a working mom who has been taking on projects here and there while gradually returning from maternity leave (“I’m [currently] keeping work very casual and not trying to be everywhere and show that I’m ‘back’ — it’s tough being a mom,” she said), Prinsloo told the magazine that “the people I look up to the most are working mothers.”
“It’s awesome to see these amazing, strong women with kids and a career, killing it at both,” she revealed.
Among those? Her “best friends” and fellow Angels Lily Aldridge and Candice Swanepoel, who are both moms (Aldridge, 33, is currently expecting her second child).
“Lily is pregnant at the moment so me and Candice are constantly telling her what products to get,” Prinsloo told PORTER The Edit about the trio’s “mom thread” on WhatsApp. “It’s so fun to have that friendship where you totally understand each other’s job but you never talk about work.”
In the meantime, her girls are developing their own unique character traits as they grow up. “My daughter Dusty is really funny and bossy. She’s a Virgo; she has such a personality. It’s weird that you can tell their sense of humorwhen they’re 2,” Prinsloo said.
“Gio is cuddly and sweet,” she revealed of her younger daughter. “I’m excited to see them a little older and really see their personalities [develop] because I think they’ll be very different.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com
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