The glamorous life of a model is what most of us want in life. From being the supermodel to becoming the poster girl of all the high-end magazines, we believe life is sorted afterwards. However, Isabella Khair Hadid, also known as Bella Hadid, an American model and the sister of Gigi, has opened up about her mental health struggles. She describes her situation as ‘excruciating and debilitating’.
In an interview with WSJ, she spoke about her mental health issues, and when asked about her secret of putting up a stylish morning outfit every day, she replied that she doesn’t have a stylist in a long time, maybe two years now.
“I was in such a weird place mentally that it was really complicated for me to get out of the house and put an outfit together, especially with the anxiety of (paparazzi) being outside and all that.”
She also talked about how as soon as she started learning about her ongoing anxiety and mental health issues, she learned and explored how to embrace herself, her fashion, and how to dress to make herself happy.
Recalling incidences from the last year, she said, “In the last year, it was really important for me to learn that even if people talk about my style or if they like it or if they don’t, it doesn’t matter, because it’s my style.” She added, “When I leave the house in the morning, what I think about is: Does this make me happy? Do I feel good in this, and do I feel comfortable?”
The model talked about how mental health issues were a big process of her transformation. She talked about the Instagram post from November 2021 in which she was crying. She said, “I would have really depressive episodes and my mom or my doctor would ask how I was and instead of having to respond in text, I would just send them a photo.”
“It was the easiest thing for me to do at the time because I was never able to explain how I was feeling,” Hadid added.
Talking about how mental health was making her suffer bad she expressed, “I would just be in excruciating and debilitating mental and physical pain, and I didn’t know why. That was over the past three years,” she further continued, “(When I posted them) it was to make sure that anybody that was feeling that way knew it was ok to feel that way.”
The model added up by mentioning how life is different from social media or the virtual world. “Even though on Instagram things look so beautiful, at the end of the day, we are all cut from the same cloth. I felt like it was just good for me to be able to speak my truth and at some point, I wasn’t able to post nice pretty pictures anymore. I was over it.”
Lastly, mentioning the real world and feeling better with her ongoing mental health, she said, “I do have good days.”
“Today is a good day. My brain fog is feeling better, I don’t feel depressed. I don’t have as much anxiety as I usually do. But tomorrow I could wake up and (be) the complete opposite. That’s why I get so overwhelmed,” she explained.
“Walking outside, being able to remember there are so many people going through things and have similar patterns to me, it makes me feel better. I don’t know if that’s not what people want on Instagram, and that’s fine. I don’t have to be on Instagram forever. I feel like real is the new real, and that’s what’s important to me,” Hadid concluded.