Mindy Kaling Says Daughter Kit, 6, Has a ‘Lot of Strong Opinions’ About Fashion — and Already Loves Makeup (Exclusive)

Kaling tells PEOPLE that her daughter already has a "strong vision" for what she likes — and doesn't like

 Mindy Kaling attends the Lion Pose LA Launch Event
Mindy Kaling. Photo:

Stefanie Keenan/Getty Images

Mindy Kaling's oldest daughter, Katherine "Kit" Swati may only be 6, but she's already a mini fashionista who knows what she likes.

She also knows what she doesn't like.

"She has a really specific vision of what she thinks is pretty and what she doesn't," Kaling told PEOPLE at Sephoria in Atlanta on Sept. 28. "[A dress is] not glamorous to her unless it touches the ground. I think it's because you're not allowed to wear evening-length gowns to first grade. So it's like the forbidden. So when I go out, if I'm just wearing a minidress, she's like, 'It doesn't touch the ground. It's not beautiful.' So she has a lot of strong opinions."

Kaling, who is also mom to Spencer, 3, and Anne, 7 months, added that her sartorially blessed daughter also has an affinity for black, so she's already well on her way to being a fashionable tween and a style maven before we know it.

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Kit is also dabbling in makeup after watching her famous mom spend so many days and nights in a glam chair, getting ready for red carpets and events. Kaling says, though, that she's not quite ready to let her daughter go wild in the makeup aisles just yet, though.

"I had thought that I was going to wait until my daughter was 13 or 14 years old before she even started getting interested," she told PEOPLE at Sephoria. "But on extremely special occasions, we'll do a little eyeshadow for her birthday party. Because I know that's a slippery slope. Then it's like, 'Well, what about Friday?' You're like, 'No, no.' But I think of it more as fun face paint, costume-type stuff with her that we do once or twice a year and she absolutely loves it."

Mindy Kaling attends SEPHORiA 2024 at Pullman Yards on September 28, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia.
Mindy Kaling at Sephoria.

Derek White/Getty 

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Kaling, who was a surprise guest at Sephoria, told PEOPLE that some of her earliest memories of playing with makeup were with her own mother, who was an Ob-Gyn. Kaling says that her mom would always be surrounded by female patients who taught her about makeup, and she passed those learnings to Kaling when she was a teen.

"Though my mom was traditional in a lot of ways, she loved wearing makeup and it really made her feel put together and confident," Kaling shared. "She used to impress that upon me. From a pretty early age she encouraged me to experiment with makeup and always wanted me to look 'done.' When we looked 'done,' she felt like people took us more seriously."

The Sex Lives of College Girls creator, 45, said she hopes to pass her love of makeup (and skin care!) onto her own kids.

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