Julia Fox Shares How She Taught Her 4-Year-Old Son Boys Can Wear Dresses

Julia Fox is making sure her child will always feel free to express himself however he wishes. The fashion it-girl revealed how she is raising her four-year-old son Valentino not to pay attention to traditional gender norms in a Sept. 10 Us Weekly profile. One of her recent lessons was helping Valentino realize that clothing doesn’t have a gender.

“I remember we were watching a movie, and then this guy comes out wearing a wedding dress. And he was like, ‘Mommy, why is he wearing a dress?’” Fox said. The actor, who lives with her best friend Richie Shazam and his partner Ben Draghi, used her chosen family as a way to educate her kid. “I was like, ‘You know, Uncle Ben wears dresses, so if I wore a suit, would that be weird?’” Fox said. “I saw the wheels turning, and it’s like, ‘Why is it only weird when boys wear girls clothes, but not weird when girls wear boys’ clothes?’”

Fox emphasized how she stays vigilant to make sure she her son doesn’t get sucked into patriarchal thinking. “As soon as they start making those remarks, we have to start deconstructing that, because that’s a little seed that has been planted,” Fox said. “Sometimes I’m just like, ‘Do I really have to do this?’ But no, I do because God forbid he goes out into the world and becomes the exact epitome of everything I hate because I was just like, ‘It’ll be fine.’”

Valentino was born in 2021, shortly after Fox had finalized her divorce from his father Peter Artemiev. She said their coparenting situation is “heaven” compared to others she’s aware of.

Her guiding principle for raising Valentino? “I think you just need to raise your boys the same way you raise your girls,” Fox said. “With Valentino, I don’t let any little thing go unchecked. ... That’s really what it is all about: communicating and having those uncomfortable conversations, trying to get them to understand in a way that a 4-year-old can.”