Gigi Hadid Gets Emotional Talking About Body-Shaming and Social Media
Last year, Gigi Hadid wrote an open letter to her body shamers that she posted to Instagram. "Yes, I have boobs, I have abs, I have a butt, I have thighs," she wrote, addressing the criticism from people who thought she wasn't skinny enough to be a model. "Your mean comments don't make me want to change my body."
Gigi's career trajectory hasn't been going anywhere but up since then, and her latest achievement is landing the September cover of Vogue, her first for American Vogue. In a podcast, Gigi spoke to the magazine's booking director Helena Suric about modeling and body image, and discussed that open letter from last year.
Gigi explained that after a month of modeling at Fashion Weeks around the world, she was feeling "overwhelmed" at the time she wrote the post. "That was the journal entry that I thought would help people and let people know that they can speak up and defend themselves," she said.
The model openly admitted that social media gets to her too. "Everyone is affected by the pressures that come from being on social media," she said. "We're all human. I'll never say that it doesn't affect me. Sometimes it's harder than others."
But the one thing she isn't insecure about is her body. "I never didn't like my body," Gigi said about her self-esteem and body image growing up. "I was very athletic. I was proud of why my body was the way it was ... You do everything you can to be healthy and do what makes you feel good and feel happy. That's just always how I've looked at it."
Gigi said she had tears in her eyes thinking about the support she received after the post. "What also really touched me that week was my friends that came to me that hadn't done so before," she said. "Everyone from my friends that are considered plus-size models to Victoria's Secret Angels who are often shown a lot of hate for being too skinny. Neither are too much this or too much that - they're bodies."
She also pointed out that comments can be the worst and are inevitable, but that it's something that affects even super-famous models. "I'll post a picture and one person will say I'm too fat andthree comments down someone's calling me anorexic," she said. "So it happens to everyone. We all go through it and no one's alone in that for sure."
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