Gigi Hadid has grown up in the public eye, but there's still a lot about the 27-year-old supermodel that people don't know.
Hadid recently sat down for a profile interview for Elle magazine's March issue, to discuss her career and the lessons she'd learned, and got surprisingly emotional when asked what the world still doesn't know about her.
"What does the world not know about me? I don’t know. I’m getting emotional [thinking about it]." Hadid said, fighting back tears. "I think that I’m someone who you have to be in front of to experience."
"It’s not hard. This isn’t a complaint. It’s more that in my job, you see a lot of snapshots," Hadid explained. "There are a lot of snapshots and really quick moments where, again, there’s not a lot of context given."
Despite living in public, she's had to fight to be heard and had to deal with the scrutiny of fame.
"I’ve had early experiences where you learn how the world reacts when you share things in certain ways," Hadid said. "Sometimes you just leave something feeling like you were taken out of context. Or just feel like you revealed too much, and it was taken advantage of. Whatever those learning-the-hard-way experiences are, you grow a certain skin."
As she's gotten more experienced with the press and with the demands of fame, Hadid has learned that she's got to set standards with the press with regards to how she wants to be treated -- especially when she's with her 2-year-old daughter, Khai. The trick has been all about "setting boundaries."
"Even if that’s with the paparazzi -- going over and saying, 'Hey, what’s up? I know we’ve seen each other from across the street for five years, but when I’m with my kid, please don’t point the camera this way,'" Hadid shared. "Sometimes you have to be assertive, and that doesn’t mean that it’s rude. It’s setting a boundary."
Hadid also spoke candidly about Khai -- whom she welcomed with ex Zayn Malik in September 2020 -- and how her daughter has impacted her life.
"She obviously sees me in every state and way, and whether she knows it or not, I’m going through and learning through life with her," Hadid shared. "I think that she has a really realistic kind of 24/7, around-the-clock view. We’re up chatting in the middle of the night if she’s up; we’re talking about, I don’t know, random stuff, but it’s fun."
"Having a daughter, although it shifted my life to make me really want to feel more settled, has also really made me appreciate the chaos as well," she explained. "Being at shows and shoots and just being in the city again. Being around friends [after] becoming a mom, with everyone also coming out of COVID. I have an appreciation for both sides of it."
Hadid covers Elle's March 2023 issue, which hits newsstands Mar. 7.
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