Natalie Portman Says Her Surprising New Venture Is ‘So Influential’ for Her Children’s Growth

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When raising strong, intelligent kiddos, you want to ensure they’re influenced by the good things in life, such as arts, and literature … and seeing some badass people get their flowers in the sporting world. Now, in case you didn’t know, Natalie Portman is a co-founder of the National Women’s Soccer League team, the Angel City Football Club, and she recently talked about how “influential” it’s been on her children.

In a recent interview with People, the V for Vendetta star talked about how she loves that her children get to see amazing women in sports be celebrated. “It’s just really fun. I think that for all kids, it’s so influential to see female athletes be celebrated as they deserve. I mean, we grew up as girls being expected to idolize male athletes, and we did,” the Black Swan star added. “If you see excellence, you can be in awe of it no matter who is being excellent. So, I think that for all our kids, it really gives me tingles thinking about how different their world will be growing up with icons we have on our team.”

Portman added that she loves seeing people come together with the joyous sport. “Well, that’s the joy of soccer or as many people call it football, that it’s something that really brings people together and is joyful,” she said. “And so, you can be supporting something like women’s equity, but also having a great time doing it.”

The Oscar-winning actress shares two children with her husband Benjamin Millepied named Aleph, 11, and Amalia, 6.

In a previous interview with Telegraph, Portman talked about the biggest lesson she’s learned since becoming a proud mama of two. “The biggest thing I’ve learned is that parenting is a totally different experience for every single person. Everything is cool, there are no rules — I mean, apart from not hurting your kid. Some people breastfeed until their babies are five, and some don’t breastfeed at all,” she said.

She added, “There are no rules about what it means to be a feminist or a good mother. For some, it’s going to be right to go back to work, for others it’s going to be right to stop working completely.”