Bella Hadid recently opened up about the pressure she felt as a young model to portray a certain image for fans and followers. As per Fox News, the 24-year-old star appeared on the cover of Vogue’s September issue with several other young modelling stars and discussed what it was like for her when she kick-started her career.
Hadid first tasted success when she was just 17 and said that she found it difficult to balance a public persona with her own personality. “It’s like there were two Bellas — me, this person in the process of figuring out who she was, and ‘Bella Hadid’ the alter ego, who was, I dunno, a sexbot who goes out every night?” the model said in the interview with Vogue.
Hadid, who graces Vogue’s September Issue cover along with Lourdes Leon, Precious Lee, Kaia Gerber, Anok Yai, Ariel Nicholson, Sherry Shi and Yumi Nu, also opened up about dealing with social anxiety in the spotlight.
“I have insane social anxiety! Partying is not my thing, but I felt enormous pressure to project that image because I assumed that’s all people wanted from me,” she said. However, the 24-year-old star has learned to feel more comfortable in her own skin — and show her complete personality to the world.”
Now I don’t want to live in that box,” she said. “I definitely feel like I’m allowed to speak.” Hadid began modelling at age 17, following in her mother, Yolanda Hadid, and older sister Gigi Hadid’s footsteps. In January 2018, Yolanda opened up about her youngest daughter’s experience with anxiety during an exclusive interview with Us Weekly.
“Bella suffers from anxiety. She goes through times where … she doesn’t like her body because she gained five pounds, or [she’s] too skinny. All this stuff that kids go through,” the 57-year-old star said.
“We’re all in the same game, and we all deal with that stuff. Even girls that are not models go through that. So, I think it’s really a great reality check to see that we’re all human and we’re all trying to do our best. All that matters is that you really try to be the best version of yourself,” she added.
Alongside her famous family, the Savage x Fenty model has filled her life with other people who know the pressure of life in the spotlight. From 2015 to 2019, Bella was in an on-off relationship with singer-songwriter The Weeknd. After they first broke up in November 2016, a source told Us Weekly exclusively that their busy schedules caused the split.
“They still have a great deal of love and respect for each other and will remain friends, but it has been too hard to coordinate their schedules with him finishing and promoting his upcoming album,” the insider shared. “They really tried to make it work.”
Last month, Bella seemingly confirmed that she’d moved on with art director Marc Kalman. “Time of my life. Healthy, Working and Loved,” she wrote via Instagram on July 8. Her caption was paired with a carousel of images, the last of which showed her embracing Kalman as he nuzzled her cheek.
