If you thought life as a supermodel was easy, Bella Hadid is living proof that good looks don’t necessarily mean that you just glide through life. The model has perviously spoken about her battle with Lymes Disease, her depression and her history of abusive relationships, and most recently she opened up about feeling as though she was the “ugly sister” while growing up with sister Gigi Hadid.
The Victoria Secret model, who is the cover star of American Vogue’s April issue, spoke candidly of feeling insecure about her body and the way she looked as a teenager. “I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn’t as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing,” she said. “That’s really what people said about me.”
And the 25-year-old said the comments affected her self-esteem, and she came to believe it was true: “Unfortunately, when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it.”
Her insecurities led her to have a nose job at 14, though she now wishes she had “kept the nose of [her] ancestors”.
“I think I would have grown into it,” she added.
Bella went on to note that the criticism of her looks made her feel as though she wasn’t worthy of being deemed a supermodel.
She explained: “I’ve had this impostor syndrome where people made me feel like I didn’t deserve any of this. People always have something to say, but what I have to say is, I’ve always been misunderstood in my industry and by the people around me.
“I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn’t as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing. That’s really what people said about me. And unfortunately when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it,” Bella explains. “I always ask myself, how did a girl with incredible insecurities, anxiety, depression, body-image issues, eating issues, who hates to be touched, who has intense social anxiety—what was I doing getting into this business? But over the years I became a good actress.”
However, as far as other cosmetic surgery is concerned, Bella told Vogue that she has never had filler. “People think I fully f***ed with my face because of one picture of me as a teenager looking puffy,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure you don’t look the same now as you did at 13, right? I have never used filler. Let’s just put an end to that. I have no issue with it, but it’s not for me.”
“Whoever thinks I’ve gotten my eyes lifted or whatever it’s called—it’s face tape! The oldest trick in the book,” she said.
Excuse us while we add tape to our Amazon baskets. Bella Hadid’s cheekbones, here we come.