Bella Hadid is a high-grade American supermodel. When it comes to fashion, style, or runway, no conversation ends without mentioning the name of the Hadid sisters, the elder being Gigi Hadid. Being an important public figure, we cannot ignore the constant scrutiny and media gaze that comes with it. Being a star with millions of followers, Bella is aware of people’s opinions about her. However, she doesn’t avert a blind eye toward it. Instead, she opens up about her insecurities.
Bella has helped evolve how the fashion industry treats the conversation around mental health. She talked about her struggles with body image and anxiety issues. She also opened up about the industry’s reluctance to acknowledge her Palestinian heritage. “I can come out as Bella, instead of trying to force myself to be somebody else,” the model said. She has wondered before if her efforts to do the “most” were an extension of the fact that she is a “people pleaser”. But now, she has finally figured out how to avoid burnout in the future by dealing with her reality.
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Bella Hadid Opens Up About Her Struggles With Anxiety
When asked about her childhood, Bella admitted that she doesn’t remember much. The reason behind her not having fond memories of living by the beach, and spending time with her horses in Pennsylvania was her mental and physical state. The 25-year-old supermodel even admitted that she started smoking at just the age of fourteen because of her anxiety. She told Allure, “Growing up, I thought it was normal that I had this chronic anxiety and this disassociation, crying every day and not knowing who I was,”. “Whether it was eating disorders or smoking a pack of Marlboros since the age of fourteen, I’m like, ‘Oh, this is what all of the kids are doing’.”
Bella stopped before self-medicating. “I realized that maybe that was me trying to figure out why I felt that way. And in reality, all I needed was therapy.” She was depressed and suffered from body dysmorphia. “During that part of my life, I was so out of body, disassociating so much… I was so confused by what people saw of me. I still, even now, see comments on Instagram when I’m sitting on the couch and am like, ‘Are they talking about me?’ I don’t understand how I’ve gotten to this point where people either appreciate my work or know who I am,” she added.
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Bella Hadid’s Mental Health
Bella has been constantly working on her mental health. And now, even though she confirms to have been better, she did open up about some of her bad days. “For years, I’d sit down in a make-up chair before shows, crying. The hairdresser would tap me on the head like, ‘Oh, you good?’, and I’m like, ‘Yeah, well this, this… But they were already onto their next conversation,” she revealed.
In November 2021, the younger Hadid sibling posted a series of photos of her crying and captioned the post: “It was never a place where I could be open about my struggles or even have other people feel welcomed or allowed to speak about theirs as well. Sometimes all you’ve gotta hear is that you’re not alone.” Now she feels, “I felt so misunderstood by the vision of me that people saw. I just didn’t want to be alive unless people knew what was actually happening to me.”
However, it is her luck that she has people she can confide in. Bella expressed her gratitude to her model friends, Karen Elson and Carolyn Murphy. “They always kept me in check. Karen’s always been very, very vocal about mental health and being able to understand body image. She was one of the first people who was really helpful for me in [understanding] that I wasn’t the only one that felt that way,” she said.
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