On most magazine covers, the parent you read about is the mother. She is the voice in the interview, the quote on the pull-page, the name above the love note. Almost always Mom.
Isabella LaCasse’s first cover story was different. When she appeared on the front of Iconic Glam Kids at nineteen months old, the voice answering every single question was not her mother’s. It was her dad’s, happily and lovingly, and at one point laughing at himself.
This ‘Father’s Day’ month, we are telling that story. Not the cover, not the curls, not the little dress on the swing, but the story of the dad behind the scenes, the one who saw something worth photographing long before the world did.
This Is Her Dad, Lol
The Q&A column of the August 2025 Baby Edition was typically written for mothers. The questions assumed it, asking about a favourite toy, a book to recommend, and a piece of advice for other moms. But the answer that came back, halfway down the page, was not the one anyone expected.
This is her dad lol, but to other dads and moms I would recommend Pete the Cat and The Wheels on the Bus. Isabella loves these books.
Isabella’s Dad, August 2025 issue
One small parenthesis, one self-aware lol, and the whole feature changed shape. The parent answering for this little girl was the man who reads her bedtime stories.
Saturday Mornings on the Kitchen Counter
Ask Isabella’s dad what he loves most, and he does not talk about milestones. He talks about Saturdays.
Every Saturday morning, Isabella sits next to him on the kitchen counter while he makes scrambled eggs. She hands him the tools one by one, in her own toddler order, and tells him how hot the pan is by pointing at it, signing the word hot, then putting her tiny hands over her mouth and going huuhuuhuu over and over again, laughing the whole time.
It is a five-minute ritual that will never show up on a milestone chart. And it is, almost certainly, the most important thing happening in their week.
One day you might be too big for sitting on the counter, but you will always be Dad’s side kick.
A message for Isabella, from her father
What the Research Says About Engaged Fathers
The science on this is now overwhelming. The Harvard Center on the Developing Child has a name for these everyday moments, the eye contact over scrambled eggs, the back-and-forth giggle. They call it serve and return, and they describe it as the literal building block of a child’s brain architecture. It happens just as powerfully through a father as through a mother.
A 2025 meta-analysis published in Social Development, drawing on sixty-five studies and more than 154,000 children, found that a father’s positive involvement, warmth, and responsiveness significantly shape a child’s social and emotional development, and that the effects begin almost from birth. Even small daily rituals matter, which is why the American Academy of Pediatrics points to the value of consistent family routines like the ones Isabella and her dad keep. It is not which parent shows up that builds the foundation. It is that someone consistently does.
Isabella has two parents who consistently do. And in the cover story of her babyhood, the one who showed up for the interview was her dad.
The Mom Side of the Story, and Why It Matters Here
Isabella’s mother, Abbigail LaCasse, returned to the magazine in our May 2026 Special Edition with a feature of her own, about learning to slow down, and trading red-light rage for the eight-minute walk down the stairs with a toddler. It is a beautiful story about a mother finding a new rhythm.
But here is the real truth behind that story: a mother can only slow down if the rest of the household is willing to slow down with her. The rhythm of a family is never set by one parent. It is set by both.
Behind Abbigail’s slower walks, her unhurried storytime on the couch, and her commitment to less screen time and more eye contact, is a father who chose the same pace. He sat with the slow Saturday eggs. He let his daughter hand him the spatula in her own order. He answered the magazine Q&A himself.
The Dad Behind the Scenes Is Often the Whole Reason There Is a Scene
You will not see Isabella’s father on the cover, and you will not find a glamorous portrait of him in the spread. By every editorial measure, he is behind the scenes.
But he is the man who showed up to the Q&A page for his loving daughter. He is the one reading Pete the Cat for the fortieth time, the one with a toddler co-pilot on his kitchen counter every Saturday morning. He is, in the most literal sense, the foundation underneath every photograph the world sees of this little girl.
He is the kind of father every child deserves. Exactly the kind we explore across The Modern Guardian and the Formative Years: present, patient, and willing to be the one who answers when the column expected someone else.
For Father’s Day Month: The Stories Worth Telling Are the Small Ones
This June, we are honouring the fathers our community has placed gently in our archive. Angel Chen’s father crossed an ocean on a single scholarship (coming soon) to build a life for his daughter. Darly Sue’s dad refused to leave her side when doctors said she might not make the night (coming soon). And Isabella LaCasse’s father picked up the magazine interview meant for her mother and answered it himself, with a laugh and a love note.
Different stories, the same shape. Behind every shining child is a father whose steady, consistent presence is the real architecture of the whole life. If you want more on building that kind of presence into ordinary days, our pieces on reading to infants and boosting confidence in a child are good companions to this one.
A Note From Iconic Glam Kids
At Iconic Glam Kids, we believe every child is an icon in a parent’s eyes. Isabella’s story reminds us that some of the most powerful fathers never appear in the photograph. They are the ones holding the spatula, reading the book again, and signing hot right back, every Saturday morning. To Isabella’s dad, and to every father quietly doing the work this month: thank you. Happy Father’s Day.