If you haven't been following her life in the fab lane, it's a bit difficult to stay on track with the many business ventures Kimora Lee Simmons dabbles in. These days, the model-turned-mogul and mom is busying herself with more than just a hit reality show. With a new community service project underway and a skincare line launching this spring, she gave us a quick peek into her latest undertakings and a brief glimpse and what life has been like after Baby Phat.

For years she's helped makeover the fashion world one outfit at a time. Now, she's taking her overhaul expertise back to school to help transform classrooms across the country. Simmons helped kick off Bounty's "Make a Clean Difference" campaign, a project that will equip students and teachers with supplies needed to clean up more than 2,500 classrooms nationwide.

While visiting P.S. 208 in Harlem, N.Y., Simmons shared why she got involved with the project and how the core principals of the program fall in line with her growing empire.


BLACK VOICES: So why did you team up with Bounty for this project?

KIMORA LEE SIMMONS: I think it's a great partnership to do this with Bounty because I am a mother of three first and foremost. Out of everything that I do, show or say about my life in the fab lane, I think the most important resonating note is that it's all about my family.

Whether you're a parent, it's your community, you're a teacher, a social worker, whatever, we care about our kids' future. If they're not taking care of their environment, what opportunities might they be cut out of? There are statistics that say that over 90 percent of teachers say their schools aren't as clean as they should be. And it's shown that a clean environment fosters creativity and growth and development and education. So this is really all about education.

BV: How are you involved and how do others get involved?

KLS: I took the pledge and I want to encourage people to join me by going to Facebook.com/Bounty. You sign on to take the pledge, we send you a kit, and you send it to school with a child. That, right there, is half the battle because teachers cannot buy these supplies for themselves. A lot of schools cannot afford this. They're not flowing in cleaning spray and napkins and paper towels - it's not easy.

One entry will win a $50,000 designer classroom makeover. It's getting big here, but every step along the way is about a cleaner school, a cleaner environment, a safer place to foster creativity and learning and development. It has all been statistically proven that students do better in a clean environment. BV: How involved are you in your own kids' schooling?

KLS: Very involved. I take them to school when I can, and I pick them up. I've never missed a recital or a performance; I'm at home doing homework with them. I'm getting them tutors to help with things I don't know. I immerse them into foreign language and other extra-curricular activities. My kids don't get home until 6 or 7pm.

I think that every child has the potential to do more and to tap into something that they love; the potential to turn an educational environment into a fun environment. It just takes help. We just have to give it a little TLC.

BV: A lot of parents aren't as involved in their kids' school activities. How do you feel about that?

KLS: I mean, I don't want to say that parents are wack, but we can do a little better. Parents have to be involved. You send your kids to school from 7 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon and during that they time they are with these other people. These other people cannot be strangers to you.

You have to support them, you have to communicate. I don't miss a teachers' conference; things don't pass by my life and I don't know what's going on with my kids. If you can't make each and every single appointment, every single recital, it's okay. My mom never went to a recital because she worked for the government and she worked hours away. So it's not like you have to do all of these things, but you should try and try to be aware and involved. You should be an active participant in your child's education. BV: So, switching gears a bit, you have a skincare line coming out this spring. Why now? Tells us what we can expect from that.

KLS: It's called Shinto Clinical. It's a basic anti-aging line, so you have your toner, moisturizer, cleanser, and eye lash growth serum - a little novelty product that we added. We also have a great anti-cellulite product and a microdermabrasion scrub.

My whole story right now for 2011 is 'upward and onward.' It's a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. I love that I'm doing this project now for school kids and I did another project recently with Dress For Success. So I think everyone can identify with that: fresh starts and new beginnings. People are changing jobs and changing homes. It's about how we balance and how we juggle it all.

I'm at that stage where I feel like my message is a little more grown-up, my life is a little more grown-up, my family, my show, my designs, my fashions, my beliefs. I'm just so happy. I look around and I realized that the whole generation of women who have grown up with me in my former life at Baby Phat have come along with me.

So when I say 'I'm ready to move on, I need something else,' they're right there, too. So we have responsibility, we want to look fabulous, we want to do our jobs, but we need to focus on ourselves as a community. We need to focus on our community.

BV: You're very active on Twitter. how has social media transformed your business?

KLS: I'm obsessed. It's the one place where I can say it's really a destination where you can come and talk to people all over the place - not just the celebrities, but your friend in Sweden. It's wild, it's instant, and I love it.

I love that I can be in my bed, my husband is watching TV, and I'm tweeting and I'm reaching people all over the world and they can ask me things directly. It's as good as you being here in person right now. It's gives you instant access to a culture that is obsessed with being up on it. It's an addiction.

I just relaunched KLS.com and the @OfficialKimora Twitter is fed into there so people can keep up with all of my stuff in one place.


What do you think of Kimora's new endeavors? Tell us!