Why Kurt Cobain's little girl says no to grunge

AS ROCK pedigrees go, no one could argue with Frances Bean Cobain's.

Her father was angstridden indie god to a generation, Kurt Cobain; her mother is Hole singer Courtney Love.

As for experiencing the full throttle of rock's wild excesses, at 13 she has seen it all.

When Frances was barely two, her father shot himself dead. When she was 10, she was taken away from Love's cust o dy - after she witnessed her overdose on drugs. And only last month Love hit the headlines amid bizarre claims that she was carrying Alan Partridge star Steve Coogan's baby, following "debauched" sex sessions in LA.

Yet somehow the teenager has managed to keep a level head.

In her first major interview and photoshoot, Frances reveals she prefers a more demure pace of life to her parents' wildliving ways.

As this exclusive picture, main shot, from this month ' s Teen Vogue shows, she shares her mother's striking profile and father's startling blue gaze.

But, though her parents may have invented the "grunge" look, she prefers to be "pretty in pink".

Posing coyly in pearls, soft plaits and mauve cardigan among delicate summer blooms, Frances - or Frannie to her friends - insists: "I don't want to be titled as Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain's daughter. I want to be thought of as Frances Cobain.

"I don't like to look sloppy. I'm a girly girl. I like a pretty skirt or nice jeans, basically something that matches or co- ordinates." She adds: "I love feminine pieces. My favourite colour is light pink.

I also like baby blue because it brings out my eyes."

She is dismissive of her mother's sleazier style choices. "I prefer it when she is more ' classy starlet'," she insists. "I don't really like her 'hard metal' stuff or when she doesn't brush her hair."

Love discovered she was pregnant with Frances in 1992, about two years after she had begun her drug-fuelled relationship with Cobain. In a 1992 article in Vanity Fair, Love admitted to using heroin while pregnant, which resulted in Child Welfare Services launching an investigation into the couple's fitness as parents.

The investigation was eventually dismissed, with the couple claiming the magazine took her words out of context. After her father's death on 5 April 1994, custody of Frances went to her mother until she was arrested after a painkiller overdose in October 2003.

Despite her turbulent rock 'n' roll upbringing, Frances still hopes to follow Kurt and Courtney's footsteps into performing.

She has just finished playing Rizzo in a Los Angeles theatre company's version of Grease and is about to audition for the Broadway musical Fiddler On The Roof.

.Read the full version of this article in Teen Vogue.