EXCLUSIVE: Ramona Singer’s Daughter Avery Opens Up About Having A ‘Real Housewife’ As A Mom

In many ways, Avery Singer is a normal high-school freshman: She plays on the tennis team, loves her friends and is completely obsessed with The Vampire Diaries; she turns 15 on Sunday, and is deciding what to do for her birthday party. She is bubbly and blonde and funny. She is the proud owner of a cute fluffy dog named Coco.

But there are several things that make her different: She lives in a luxe Manhattan apartment, and her mother is Ramona Singer, one of the wildly controversial and entertaining cast members on Bravo’s The Real Housewives Of New York City. And Avery has made several appearances on the show, now in its third season. She is a cult fan favorite — especially at Crushable headquarters — for her deadpan reactions to Ramona’s expressive, outwardly goofy behavior. In a scene during last week’s episode, Ramona asked Avery to stand up for the renewal of her vows to Avery’s dad, businessman Mario Singer; Avery thought about it for a second, rolled her eyes and asked what she’d have to do “if I decide to even be your maid of honor.” She also observed: “Shouldn’t you renew your vows after 20 years? Like, 17 is such a random number.”

As it happens, Avery did eventually decide to support her parents during their milestone ceremony. And as for her initial reaction, she tells Crushable, “I didn’t really know because I was kind of put on the spot. I don’t know — I wouldn’t be, ‘Yes, yes of course!’ Because the whole thing to me was just kind of … But reflecting on it, I’m glad they did it and it was really — as you see in the upcoming episodes — it was really a powerful moment, and everyone was really emotional and it was so cute. I was glad that I was able to participate in it! I was just standing there, whatever made my mom happy. And Coco was in my arms. She was the ring bearer. Kimberly Towers designed our dresses and she made Coco a dress too.  … It was a moment that I’ll remember for a long time.”

Avery — sporting her school uniform of a Polo shirt and skirt — sits for an afternoon interview with Crushable in her brightly colored bedroom, which has a shelf lined with sports trophies and white walls decorated in a graphic pink-and-orange pattern; perched on a turquoise chair, she talks excitedly about transferring to a new coed school next year: one with 40 acres, a lax dress code and (yes,  boys allowed). The sprawling campus is outside Manhattan but it’s a “day school,”  not boarding school.

“I love the city, I love my friends, I love being here — all the energy — but I don’t think I would be allowed to go (to boarding school),” she says. “I mean, it’s one thing if I really wanted it, then probably. But sometimes when I would just joke around with my mom — “How about I apply to some boarding schools?’ — she’d get all upset, and one time she cried.”

Real Housewives watchers know that Ramona gives off a manic energy which often alienates her castmates, especially when she offers her opinions on Kelly Bensimon’s IQ (“No brain!”) and Bethenny Frankel’s relationship with her now-husband Jason (“You’re probably gonna screw that up too!”). And two episodes ago, Ramona shocked and delighted viewers when she prowled the red carpet at Brooklyn Fashion Week with her eyes practically bulging out of their sockets. Jill Zarin — who’s become a villain this season — could barely contain her laughter, and Ramona is a favorite target of Jill and new BFF Countess LuAnn de Lesseps.

“Sometimes when I see an episode I’m like, ‘Mom, why’d you do that?!’” Avery says. “But I don’t get mad at her. You just have to own what you did and, for ratings, you want it to be exciting to viewers and not, like, boring!” And as for other Housewives’ cutting remarks toward her mother, “I would never say that about a person, especially when it’s gonna air on live TV. But I mean, that’s their opinion, and I know my mom VERY well because I live with her and she’s none of those things of what they say.”

For the most part, Avery shrugs off the popular series — one of four editions of the Bravo franchise — as no big deal.

“Personally, I don’t think it’s major,” she says. “We think of it as … a documentary or just like one of those home videos. My friends are my friends. We never talk about it unless I bring it up, which is rare. And I mean, it’s not who I am and  it’s not who my parents are. We’re like completely different people. And also they edit you a certain way! They edit my mom to be this certain type of mom but they don’t show all her colors.”

For example: “She may seem fun and outgoing and everything but she’s also very motherly. She’ll make sure, ‘OK, you have to take away your computer’ or ‘Avery, you have to do your homework,’ or ‘Avery, where are you going — I want the number, I want the address.’ I’m like, mom, come on!”

Her parents often dole out tough love, and while she sometimes likes to “play sides,” she is neither a Mommy’s or a Daddy’s Girl.

“I love my parents equally and I couldn’t choose but my mom is more someone who I like talk to about girl things,” she says. “I wouldn’t necessarily tell my dad some stuff. But then my dad, he ‘s more active like me: We’ll play tennis together, we’ll ski together, we’ll play catch, things that my mom just wouldn’t be capable of doing — like catching a ball. Like, no. But they’re both fun in their own way.”

The best advice Ramona has ever given her? Make your own money. “She’ll always tell me that because her mother was abused and she couldn’t leave the relationship,” she says. “And so my mom has always told me to empower myself and kind of be independent and not rely on other people.”

Avery — an only child who vows to one day have “a lot of children” so they won’t be lonely for siblings (like she was growing up) — is stretching her wings and going away this summer on a “Teen Tour” of Hawaii, where she will do some community service. She is very interested in philanthropy, and her pet charity is the Gabrielle’s Angels Foundation for cancer research. “It’s close to me because my grandma died of leukemia, so I kind of have a really strong connection because I saw her go through everything,” she says. “I was young so I didn’t really understand.”

On a less serious note, Avery is days away from her 15th birthday — she wants to do something low-key this year because the next will be her Sweet Sixteen (and that requires a big party). It all sounds like fun! She gets giddy when the conversation turns to her favorite show, CW’s Vampire Diaries, which features hottie newcomer Paul Wesley.

“I scream at the TV,” she gushes. “In the last episode, I screamed! Omigod, they’re all so beautiful! … They all have really sick bodies!!”